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A REPORT 



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tiflii 01 tie wastes ol m M 




" m DEPARTMENT OF STREET CLEANING 

A 



GEORGE E. WARING. Jr. 



COMMISSIONER 



New York 
martin b. brown, printer and stationer, 

Nos. 49 TO 57 Park Place 



1896 



'I 




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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Introduction 3 

Garbage and Its Treatment 7 

Hotel Garbage 32 

Grease as a Garbage Product 40 

The Condition of tlie Fertilizer Trade 54 

The Junk Cart Trade 66 

Processes and Appliances '<6 

Crematories 95 

General Observations 97 

Tables 102 

Some General Observations on Incineration or Ciernafion 108 

How Waste May be Utilized 114 

Appendix 115 

Bottles from Dumps 117 

The Old Paper Trade 132 

Utilization of Clean Ashes 132 

History of the Garbage Contract 142 

Index 157 



10- 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



St. Louis Sanitary Comiiany Building 31 

Garbage Reception Room, St. Louis 39 

Centre of Drying-room, St. Louis 53 

Second Slory of Pittsburg Plant 65 

Bank of Dryers, Pittsburg , 75 

Filling-room, Philadelphia 79 

View of Cooking-tanks, Philadelphia. 81 

Press Room, Philadelphia 83 

Dryer 84 

Disintegrator 85 

Fume Condenser, Philadelphia 87 

Conveyor 88 

Discharging Door, Pittsburg ■ 98 

^ cs^-K e^ r> r:i» Q 






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Department of Street Cleaning. 



City of New Yoek, February 3, 1896. 

His Honor William L. Strong 

Mayor : 

Sir — As yoa know, tlie Department of Street Cleaning lias 
continued, for the past ten months, an active investigation and 
consideration of the very serious questions connected with 
the final disposition of the various products of its industry. 
There are no two opinions as to the barbarism of the practice 
of depositing these matters in the sea — a practice that is both 
wasteful and pernicious. Thus far, however, no better means 
has been found for getting rid of them. The report of the 
Advisory Committee of 1894 is full of valuable information, 
and its conclusions have not been traversed by more recent 
investigations. But this report does not carry the subject to 
its full conclusion. 

It is known that garbage cannot be economically utilized 
if it is mixed with any considerable quantity of rubbish or of 
ashes ; it is known that it cannot be economically incinerated 
unless it is separated at least from the bulk of the ashes with 
which, under the prevailing New York practice, it is mixed ; 
it is known that ashes cannot be safely used as a filling ma- 
terial, so long as they contain such waste organic matters as 



I Ii;i8 



constitute the garbage and some of the rubbish of city col- 
lections ; it is also known that a very considerable part of 
garbage and of rubbish, as collected throughout the city, is 
of sufficient value to pay more than the cost of its collection. 
Aided by a nvimber of active and intelligent experts, I 
have, during the past ten months, given unremitting attention 
to this complicated problem. While nothing like a definite 
conclusion has been reached, and while it is, in my judg- 
ment, by no means certain that a general contract for final dis- 
position can wisely be entered into in the present state of our 
knowledge, I do think that more is known now than was known 
a 3'ear ago, and that there is a fair chance of our securing a 
good result in the letting of a contract for the incineration or 
utilization of garbage according to the specifications now 
advertised. 

You have already been informed that the equivalent of 
the money hitherto received by the City for the privilege of 
trimming the scows has been taken in the form of services, 
machinery, etc., with a view to investigating the subject of the 
best disposal of rubbish, and learning the possibility of 
deriving from this a value greater than is now received from 
the scow-trimmers. This trial has, thus far, necessarily taken 
the second place. Now that the garbage investigations are 
out of the way, full attention will be given to this branch of 
the subject, and I trust that another year will not elapse 
before some definite and valuable conclusion concerning the 
matter will be reached. 

We still have the problem of ashes and street sweepings 
to consider. Concerning these, I am not prepared to do more 
than to express a general idea that there may be some means 
by which the process of decomposition, which renders a heap 



of ashes and garbage innocuous after a time (on the principle 
of the earth-closet), may be so intensified and accelerated 
without the labor and annoyance of separating ashes and 
garbage, and without disadvantage resulting from the ad- 
mixture of horse manure and street sweepings with the 
mass, thcit we may be able to deposit these substances in large 
quantities in such a way as to avoid offense and danger. 
Experiments in this direction are now about being under- 
taken on a small scale, and if these are successful, permission 
will be asked to extend their range to cover considerable 
amounts. 

It is not unlikely that it will be found practicable and 
advisable to modify our methods of collection very materially. 
For example, if all paper, other combustible matters 
and general refuse could be kept within the houses and 
delivered in a reasonably compact form to collectors always 
ready to come on signal, a vast deal of litter would 
be kept from the streets ; and whatever of value these 
materials might contain could be recovered much more 
easily and completely than under present conditions. It may 
be that the amount of garbage to be handled will be greatly 
reduced, and that the reduction will relate largely to 
its richer and more valuable portions, as a result of the intro- 
duction of the household process of destruction or carboniza- 
tion in connection with the kitchen fire. After several months' 
use of this method in my own house, and with a good deal of 
knowledge as to its use elsewhere, I am inclined to believe 
that this, or some similar device, will solve a very large part 
of the garbage problem ; and that such garbage as is still to 
be dealt with will be of a character to be more easily treated 
by natural processes in connection with the ashes. 



6 

Two serious objections exist to the separate collection of 
garbage. One relates to the maintaining of a separate recep- 
tacle, which is almost invariably a nuisance to the house- 
holder, and another is the unavoidable swill-like odor of garb- 
age-carts passing through the streets in hot weather. When 
garbage is mixed with ashes its odor is to a very large degree 
arrested, and where the masses are small, putrefaction is 
hardly to be apprehended. 

The appended papers, which are due almost entirely to 
the intelligence, skill and industry of my assistants, Mr. 
Macdonough Craven, Mr. Hawthorne Hill, and Mr. C. Her- 
schel Koyl, set forth the results of our investigations, so far 
as we are at liberty to publish statistical and other informa- 
tion, obtained at the cost of the owners of the various pro- 
cesses and in strict confidence. We have full details as to the 
economy and efficiency of each plant investigated, but we are 
under obligations to use the details of this information only 
for our own official guidance. 

Respectfully submitted 

Geoege E. Waring, Je. 
Commissioner of Street Cleaning. 



Garbage and Its Treatment. 



New York, December 10, 1895. 

Colonel George E. Waring, Jr. 

Commissioner of Street Cleaning : 

Sir — In obedience to your instructions of November 7, 
1895, I submit herewith the following report on garbage re- 
duction or utilization. 

When it was decided, early in the year, to dispose of the 
city's garbage by some better method than the old process of 
dumping at sea, an effort was made to learn what system 
would be best suited to the City of New York, with its 
limited space and its large amount of material to be cared 
for daily, and what the economies of such a system might be. 
Early in March last, therefore, the various companies in 
this country engaged in the treatment of garbage were in- 
vited to present to this Department informal bids showing 
the prices at which they would be willing to receive and 
properly dispose of the garbage of New York City. 

Twenty-six answers were received and opened on March 
26th, but only one company was willing to accept a contract 
from the City without a subsidy to aid in the work. The 
average of all bids from companies which proposed to cre- 
mate or destroy by fire was ninety cents per ton of garbage 
delivered, to be paid by the Cit}^ ; and from companies 
which proposed to utilize the garbage, or convert its avail- 
able parts into grease and fertilizer, the average of all bids 
was fifty-five cents per ton. Only about half of the twenty- 
six bidders were believed by the Department to be sufiiciently 
experienced and responsible to make offers from them 
acceptable to the City. 

Under these circumstances it was deemed advisable to 
make an independent investigation of the various methods 
proposed ; since, on the one hand, the City should not be 



allowed to pay more than, under economical management, 
would secure efficient service ; while, on the other hand, it 
would be disastrous to accept a low bid from any company 
which, on limited experience, might have under-estimated the 
cost and find itself losing money and obliged to cease opera- 
tions. No financial return in the form of bonded security 
could recompense the City if it should find its garbage 
uncared for in the midst of a heated summer. 

Acting upon this theory, a circular letter was prepared 
and sent to each of the companies, proposing an examination 
of its plant and system by two competent men from this De- 
partment ; the scope of the examination to include the cost 
of operation, the value of the commercial products and the 
very important questions of the permissible character of the 
process and its adaptability to the needs of this City ; the 
minimum time of test to be thirty days ; the salaries and 
expenses of the examiners to be paid by the company ; the 
numerical results of the test to be considered confidential 
information to this Department. 

Several of the companies acquiesced in the value of such 
an examination and expressed their willingness to accede to 
its terms. 

Competent men were, therefore, selected for the work, 
different ones being sent to different plants, in order that the 
examination might be impartial and unprejudiced and the 
result obtained within a reasonably short time. The tests 
were of necessity summer tests, when garbage becomes most 
quickly offensive, when any odors arising from the treatment 
would surely be»noticeable, and when, also, garbage contains 
most water and is least valuable for utilization purposes. 

More than 3,000 tons of garbage in the cities of Buffalo, 
St. Louis, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and New York were treated 
by different methods, under the supervision of ypur inspectors. 

One point made clear by the investigation is, that when 
garbage is collected daily from each house, from clean cans, 
and conveyed at once to a properly equipped reduction plant, 



9 

it has not time to ferment, even in summer, before it is safely 
stowed away within the steam-tight cooking tanks of the re- 
duction plant, and that under these conditions and under ex- 
perienced management, the operations of such a factory can 
be carried on with little more offense than arises from a large 
kitchen. 

The first difficulty experienced in the endeavor to operate 
a satisfactory system of collection and disposal arises from 
the tendency of some householders to consider the cleanli- 
ness of the private garbage can as the affair of the City. If 
the householder daily delivers to the garbage collector only 
the table and kitchen refuse of the past twenty-four hours, it 
is evident that there cannot be serious offense in what was so 
lately fit for the table ; but if the can is not thoroughly cleaned 
each day after being emptied, it will soon give rise to odors 
and just complaints. 

The second difficulty is found in the natural tendency of 
men engaged in handling such waste material to regard it as 
essentially unclean, and, therefore, to fail to maintain in a 
state of cleanliness the carts, wagons and machinery in use. 

When our observations on this point are condensed, they 
amount simply to a statement of the facts that garbage 
twenty-four hours old is not offensive to the smell, either in 
small or in large quantities, but that even minute remnants 
do become offensive in two or three days, and that only un- 
remitting care can keep the cans, carts and machiner}^ em- 
ployed in a cleanly condition. 

Kitchen refuse consists of animal and vegetable scrap, con- 
taining and mixed with a large amount of water. The animal 
scrap is of value for utilization purposes, because it fur- 
nishes the principal part of the grease and ammonia which 
are the salable products of garbage ; and since the cost of 
treating such waste is approximately the same, be it rich or 
poor, it is plain that the commercial value of garbage varies 
almost directly as its proportion of animal matter. If the 
amount of grease and ammonia recovered are sufficient to de- 



10 

fray the expense of treatment, the people of any city may 
have their garbage dispensed of without cost ; and while this 
condition probably does not now exist anywhere on the con- 
tinent, it is an end worth striving for if it can be accom- 
plished without loss to the householder. 

Some practices of the citizen which affect the value of 
garbage have been reported. A large proportion of people 
keep uncovered garbage cans or barrels, and a vast majority 
of these keep them in yards or outhouses where they are ac- 
cessible to every stra,j cat or prowling dog that comes, and 
soon they come regularly. Some of the investigators have 
watched troops of cats making their nightly rounds from yard 
to yard, pulling out of each accustomed barrel and can the 
accessible pieces of meat, bone and other delicacies ; and 
thus not only is a public nuisance maintained in the form of 
a howling mob of homeless cats, but the garbage is culled of 
the onl}^ parts that go to make it valuable to a contractor or 
help to reduce the price which the City must pay for its 
disposal. 

The same trouble intensified is found when garbage is 
collected only three times or perhaps twice a Aveek. The cats 
and dogs do just so much more work. And then, too, the 
tidj housekeeper, to whom a waste-can is an eyesore under 
the best of circumstances, gets tired of smelling, or imagining, 
the odors due to two or three days' decomposition, and begins 
to consign, not to the garbage can, but to the kitchen fire, all 
that burns most easily — of course, the scraps containing 
grease. This is waste of good material, but it is much better 
than foul odors and the midnight cat. If, in this city where 
garbage is collected daily, the householder will only keep a 
cover on his can, he will do much toward lessening the cost 
of final disposition. 

One can scarcely conceive of a crematory, which destroys 
garbage by fire, becoming a self-supporting concern, since 
considerable fuel is necessary and the only residue is ashes ; 
but the fact that there are garbage " utilization " plants at 



11 

once suggests that under certain conditions tlie utilizable 
material may pay for its own extraction. It is perliaps need- 
less to say that the word "garbage," which is so loosely 
used in this and a few other cities to denote any 
kind of waste or a mixture of them all, including ashes and 
street sweepings, is for the purpose of this investigation 
limited to animal and vegetable refuse from markets and 
kitchens. Only this is desirable in a utilization plant. A 
small admixture of cans, bottles and berry boxes entails 
extra expense for separation, but is not prohibitory of the 
process, while any such mixture as we have in New York 
to-day of ashes, garbage and a little of everything, is prohibi- 
tory. Garbage must be separated from everything else, to be 
effectively and properly treated, and the other things must 
be separated from garbage to find, in their turn, any useful 
outlet. 

In connection with the tests, I beg to call attention to the 
uniform courtesy with which the examiners have been 
received and the willing assistance offered at the various 
working plants inspected. As noted above, the salaries and 
all expenses of the examiners and the additional costs inci- 
dental to the tests have been cheerfully borne by the 
companies, and no trouble or expense has been spared by 
them to further the interests of the investigation. The Merz 
Universal Extractor and Construction Company submitted 
its ojDerations to our inspection for a term of four weeks 
in Buffalo and two in St. Louis ; and, for a further test 
of New York and Brooklyn garbage, and to demonstrate 
the Preston Process which is controlled by the above com- 
pany, experiments were carried on for two weeks in a 
special plant in Greenpoint, L. I. The Sanative Kefuse 
Company, at an expense of several thousand dollars, equipped 
a plant in New York City and conducted a continuous test of 
two months for the purpose of allowing us to study their 
system and to learn the character and composition of New 
York garbage. The works of the American Incinerating 



i: 



Company in Philadelphia treated 1,800 tons to illustrate 
their utilization system and the character of Philadelphia 
garbage, while for a similar purpose in Brooklyn the 
American Reduction Company reduced 84 tons under our 
inspection. The Holthaus plant at Bridgeport, Conn., has 
undergone an exhaustive and costly test ; and, as the com- 
pany operating this s^^stem apparently does not receive all 
the garbage of the city, it is working under difficulties and 
at an unnecessary expense. Notwithstanding this, however, 
every facility has been given to the Department examiners. 

The Standard Construction and Utilization Company of 
Philadelphia was inspected under the same conditions as the 
above-named companies, but, owing to difficulties unfore- 
seen by its managers, it proved impossible to complete the 
test at that time (August). 

Systematically arranged, the tests already made appear as 
follows : 



Name of Company. 


Location. 


Date. 


Merz Universal Extractor and 
Company 


Construction 


Buffalo 

St. Louis 

New York 


June. 


Merz Universal Extractor and 
Company 


Construction 


July. 
August . 


Sanative Refuse Company 







At these three plants grease is extracted by the use of 
hydro-carbon oils and the remaining solids are converted into 
a fertilizer base. 



Name of Company. 


Location. 


Date. 


The Preston Process 


Greenpoint 

Bridgeport 

Philadelphia . . . 


July. 

February. 

July. 


The Bridgeport Utilization Co 


American Incinerating Companv 





18 



At these three plants grease is extracted by mechanical 
pressure and the remaining solids are made into a fertilizer 
base. 



Name of Company. 


Location. 


Date. 


Sanative Refuse Company (Pierce Process) .... 
American Reduction Company 


New York 

Brooklyn 


September. 
May. 





Both these companies make the garbage solids into a 
complete fertilizer ready for the farmer's use, but the first 
extracts the grease by means of a solvent while the second 
uses acid. 



Name of Company. 



The Standard Construction and Utilization 
Company 



Location. 



Philadelphia . 



Date. 



Auo;ust. 



At this plant the cooking is done in steam jacketed caul- 
drons, the charge being agitated meanwhile and the grease 
separated by flotation and skimming. 

These comprise most of the best known S3'stems, and 
illustrate nearly all of what in this country has been re- 
duced to practice in the treatment of garbage. As yet we 
have derived from the house and hotel garbage only grease 
and fertilizer materials. Our two best known means of ex- 
tracting the grease are, (1) by dissolving it in some liquid 
which, after being drawn off, may be separated from the 
grease and recovered ; and, (2) the mechanical method of forcing 
out warm grease under heavy pressure. During this sum- 
mer's tests these two methods, and all others submitted, were 
carefully examined as to the cost of operation and the results 
obtained. The importance of this becomes at once evident 
when it is known that the 40 to 50 pounds of grease in a ton 



u 

of garbage may be extracted in sucli condition as to sell for 
3|- cents per pound, making in value about half the available 
material in garbage ; and that if any remains unextracted it is 
doubly lost, since it detracts from the selling vahie of the 
fertilizer. 

The facts to be learned, then, in reference to grease ex- 
traction by each method were, (1) the cost of operation ; (2) 
the amount of grease extracted ; (3) its condition — freedom 
from dirt, water, etc. ; (4) the amount unextracted ; and by 
determining these four points we have not only established 
the relative efficiencies of the different methods practiced, 
but have learned the character and value of New York garb- 
age as compared with that of other cities. 

A special paper upon the condition and probable future 
of the grease trade has been prepared from information fur- 
nished by dealers and consumers expert in the business ; and 
this enables us to give to garbage grease, offered in small or 
in large quantities, its proper place and value, and to gauge 
the accuracy of estimates which determine the figures sub- 
mitted by bidders. 

Regarding the solid matter of garbage, which after being 
cooked becomes tankage or fertilizer base, or complete fertil- 
izer, there has been established a similar kind of information 
as to, (1) the cost of getting rid of the water ; (2) the amount 
of dry matter saved (and it is strange that the same kind of 
garbage shows such various results by different methods) : (3) 
the condition of this dry matter— whether it is in a form suit- 
able for the fertilizer manufacturer (and again it is strange 
how it varies) ; and (4) the amount of solid matter lost. 

Here, too, a paper on the fertilizer trade, similar to that 
on the grease trade, has been prepared, and from similar 
sources. 

The relation of these factories to the health of the com- 
munity in which they are situated is determined by the clean- 
liness of the building and machinery, the manner and condi- 
tion in which the garbage water is got rid of, and the character 



15 

and amount of odors which escape. So much progress has 
been made of late years, and so many difficulties have been 
overcome, some by one company and some by another, that 
it seems safe now to say that if all that is known on the 
subject could be put into practice in one factory, that 
factory could with freedom be located in any city on the 
continent. 

It has been found necessary also to make a detailed study, 
covering several weeks, of the present disposition of the gar- 
bage and grease wastes of the City hotels, restaurants and 
large boarding-houses. Many of these had made contracts 
with private parties for the disposal of their garbage before 
the City was in position to care for it, and even since that 
time the hours of removal by the City have not always met 
the necessities of such establishments, and many of the pri- 
vate contracts have been continued. This study was part of 
the general plan for determining the character and amount 
of recoverable kitchen waste in this city of meat eaters not 
noted for excessive economy, and a valuable part since in 
these places the separation of garbage from other matters 
has always been carefully made. 

An examination of the libraries has furnished much use- 
ful information from the cities of Europe in reference to the 
amount of their garbage, its value and the adopted methods 
of disposal ; and both prepared the way for a comparison of 
bheir methods with ours and enabled us to set a standard 
below which we need not fall. 

The reports from the various examiners, upon being sub- 
mitted, have been collated and corresponding tables prepared. 
A general report is herewith submitted. 

The methods considered cover the hydro-carbon, acid and 
mechanical processes. 

Hydro-carbon processes extract the grease more thor- 
oughly than any other method inspected. 

Acid processes do not, as a rule, give good results as far 
as grease is concerned. 



16 

Mechanical processes extract a fair percentage of tlie 
grease. 

The tankage is of varying quality, according to the method 
used and the class of garbage handled. All reduction 
methods, properly conducted, can be made unobjectionable 
from the sanitary point of view. The faults seem to come 
from a want of experience in construction ; for what has been 
found offensive in one plant has been so handled in another as 
to be entirely without offense. 

MATEEIAL RECEIVED. 

The material received in the different cities shows a great 
difference. This is due to the following causes : 

First — Season of the year. 

Second — Geographical and trade location of the city. 

Third — Variation of the regulations in force. 

Fourth — Delinquencies of the officials in enforcing proper 
separation, and the consequent carelessness of the collectors, 
resulting in the delivery at the dumps or works of many 
things not properly belonging to city garbage. 

The different seasons of the year show different classes of 
garbage. During the winter the garbage is less in bulk and 
greater in weight. This is due to the fact that many canned 
and onl}^ a few green vegetables are used. During the sum- 
mer the quantity is larger, but the weight in proportion to 
the bulk is less. This is due to the fact that the green stuff 
or waste from fresh vegetables is predominant. During the 
summer months, also, a much larger proportion of refuse, 
incidental to the handling of fruits and vegetables, is mixed 
with the garbage. The different seasons may also be divided, 
as, for example, periods covering such as green-corn time, 
pea-pod time, melon time, and so on. 

Geographical location controls garbage to the extent of 
determining the classes of plant and animal food that are in 



17 

general use. Furthermore, as all cities are more or less trade 
centres and cosmopolitan in character, the floating population 
varies with the season of the year, and the markets' business 
varies in accordance therewith. The increase in population 
makes an increase in the waste. 

The regulations of the various municipalities in some 
cases permit rubbish to be mixed with the garbage, and the 
quality and quantity of this rubbish is not clearly defined. 

The delinquencies of officials, drivers, collectors, etc., arise 
from carelessness, personal gain by collusion with those 
interested in the works, or with the householders, or an honest 
belief that> they can improve on regulations and benefit the 
cities thereby. The last mentioned class is very small. 

It is found by investigation that the averages of collection 
and disposal vary. Tbis variation can be traced to several 
causes : 

First — Method of disposition. 

Second — Whether the City or a contractor makes the col- 
lections. 

Third — The regulations ; that is, whether they permit of 
the garbage being overhauled by rag-pickers, etc. 

Fourth — Freqnenc}' of collections. 

If the garbage and general refuse is hauled to dumps, and 
the haul is long, the cartmen or drivers, especially in rainy 
or otherwise disagreeable weather, if opportunity ofi"ers, will 
lessen their work by dumping at the most convenient place. 

If the City refuse is burned, the material best adapted to 
the furnace is generally delivered ; that is, combustible refuse. 

If, on the other hand, it is reduced, combustible refuse is 
not especially desirable. 

If the City makes the collections, and the cartmen are not 
closely supervised, they are liable to give poor service, and 
the householder, in order to improve on that service, will 
employ private collectors. 



18 

The collections made by private cartmen are not handled 
by the City, as a rule, and therefore all record of such collec- 
tions is lost. 

Again, if a contractor makes the collections, it depends 
largely on the basis of payment. That is, if the payments are 
made in a lump sum, the tendency of the contractor is to col- 
lect as small a quantity as possible ; whereas, if the payment 
is per ton or per cubic yard, there is a tendency to collect 
everything of sufficient weight or bulk to make the collection 
as large as possible. Percentages of collections per capita^ 
therefore, vary. 

The third case under consideration depends on the Inspect- 
ors, Police, Health Board, or whomsoever controls the work 
or supervises it. Should the supervision be lax, or the regula- 
tions permit, a large part of the refuse will be culled from the 
receptacles by ragpickers and scavengers, and large quanti- 
ties will thus be disposed of in an insalutary manner, also to 
the detriment of correct data of quantity, and the streets will 
be strewn with rubbish as well. 

Nothing better than the method of collection pursued in 
this City has so far presented itself. 

The frequency of collection has a strong bearing on the 
quantity collected. This is shown by the annexed tables, and 
may be due to several causes. Infrequent collection affords 
more opportunities for scavengers, both men and animals, to 
overhaul and deplete the waste. 

EUBBISH. 

The rubbish mixed with garbage is mainly tin cans; be- 
side these, there are bottles, rags, crockery, berry baskets 
(especially in fruit season), wood scraps, metal, and all con- 
ceivable kinds of refuse. A three foot section of 60-pound T 
rail was delivered at one of the works as garbage. 

The cans are sold, the solder is in some cases recovered, 
and the body of the can melted down. They are a 
great nuisance to reduction plants, as in several processes 



19 

they, or a part of them, are dumped into the extractors 
or the dryers, as the case may be. If these cans do not 
fall bottom side up in the extractors, they not only hold 
what grease is in them, but also whatever finds its way into 
them while in the extractor. The cans, in quantity, in the 
dryers cause considerable wear on the machinery, which may 
more than offset their A^alue as auxiliary disintegrators, as 
will be set forth in the discussion on dryers. 

Those that are culled from the fresh or green garbage, 
all rubbish, in fact, culled from garbage, should be disinfected 
before being marketed. 

The next matter of importance, as far as rubbish is con- 
cerned, is the rags. These rags are in some cases delivered 
with the garbage in large quantities. They are culled for 
various reasons : for marketing, to be used as combustibles 
in furnaces ; and also, to keep them clear of the machinery, 
which they are liable to clog to a great extent, more espe- 
cially in rotary dryers. 

The other rubbish, with the exception of the bottles and 
crockery, is generally thrown into the furnace and con- 
sumed. 

The above remarks apply more generally to reduction 
plants than to crematories ; as in crematories combustible 
refuse mixed with the garbage aids, and cheapens the cost of, 
cremation, and tin cans keep the garbage more or less sepa- 
rated, thus permitting the heat to work through. 

In some foreign cities all garbage and other refuse is 
sorted. 

" The whole process of sorting is a noxious one ; and the 
foul odors given off during the process, and also from the 
heaps of refuse awaiting removal, whilst fermentation and de- 
composition are at work, often prove a most serious nuisance 
to the surrounding neighborhood." ("A Treatise on Hygiene 
and Public Health " ; Stevenson & Murphy.) 

" The old system still obtains at many places of carrying 
the refuse to a sorting yard. 



20 

"Here men and women are employed sorting the refuse 
and separating it into — 

" Breeze (cinders and small particles of coal), 

" Hard core (bottles, bones, crockery, metal, pots and 

pans), 
" Soft core (animal and vegetable organic matters and 
textile substances).'' 
" The breeze is sold to brickmakers ; the hard core, or 
such parts of it as are worthless, is used in roadmaking ; and 
the soft core is mixed with fish offal, market sweepings and 
horse droppings, and sent into the country to be sold as 
manure. 

"It does not pay now to use garbage as a fertilizer in its 
unreduced form." 

FREE WATER. 

Nearly all the nuisances that arise or are complained of in 
regard to garbage originate from the free water mixed with 
the garbage. This drips -from the carts, or is spilled from 
them in dumping, in varying quantities. It has that sour or 
swill smell so prevalent and so well known. This free water 
can be traced to three causes : Eain, waste water of cooking, 
exudations from the vegetables themselves. 

The rain water is not, as a rule, of sufl&cient quantity to 
demand attention. If, however, the haul is long, the cart 
open, and the receptacles have been standing some time be- 
fore collection, then the quantity of rain water mixed with the 
garbage is more than would be expected and is, in fact, at times 
very large. The usual quantity of free water is in the neigh- 
borhood of ten per cent, by weight, or from twentj^-five to 
thirty gallons per ton. 

The waste water of cooking forms a large part of the ten 
per cent. — in fact, nearly all of it — and is. something to be 
avoided. Should it go to the sewer? Certainly it should 
not be permitted to pollute the public streets through the 
bottoms of leaky carts. 



21 

The small quantity which exudes from the garbage itself 
can hardly be considered. 

It is this swill water and grease which clings to the sides 
and bottoms of the household receptacles and of the garbage 
carts, and if these receptacles and carts are not cleansed 
properly, and as often as necessary, the foul odors which 
arise give constant and just cause for complaint. This free 
water is not desired by crematories, but is advantageous to 
certain reduction plants. 

In connection with the above, it might be well to speak of 
the receptacles and carts in general use. 

The receptacles are not, as a rule, of the proper shape, 
being cylindrical in form and too higiwn proportion to the 
diameter, making them difficult to empty. A receptacle of 
wide mouth and narrow bottom could be more rapidly emp- 
tied, more easily cleansed, and, therefore, more acceptable to 
both the householder and the cartman. 

"Galvanized iron pails with covers are recommended. If 
the contents are kept properly dry, fermentation and the pro- 
duction of offensive gases is avoided, even although the tem- 
perature of the air is high," ("A Treatise on Hygiene and 
Public Health.") 

The carts in general use are of metal and tight-bottomed. 
The patterns vary ; some are covered, some open. 

" Large metal carts, like our ' trucks,' with springs to pre- 
vent noise, and with close-fitting wooden covers, made in> 
sections, so that the entire cover need not be raised for the 
introduction of each pailful of garbage, are most in favor in^ 
German cities." 

Daily removal is best. ^ 

GAEBAGE OK MATERIAL TREATED. 

After culling, the garbage treated at the different works 
visited was, as a rule, similar in character. It was principally 
summer garbage and largely vegetable and fruit waste. This 
summer garbage, on account of its bulk, has to be handled 



22 

more rapidly than that of the winter. It is, therefore, not 
so carefully culled, although, as it contains fewer ingredients 
of value, it may be more rapidly worked. 

The winter garbage does not contain so much vegetable 
waste, but, on account of the season of the year and the large 
quantities of ice occasionally contained therein, more fuel 
is necessary to dispose of it. But the value of winter 
garbage is greater than that of summer. 

TAILINGS. 

The variation in the per cent, of useless tailings from 
reduction plants is due to the " efficiency of separation " by 
the cities ; also to the manner of screening in use at the 
various works, but it is not due to the process. That is, the 
percentage of available solid matter for fertilizer contained in 
garbage is practically constant, but if the authorities permit 
extraneous matter to be mixed with the garbage, or if the 
mesh of the screen used in screening dried tankage is small, 
then the per cent, of waste is increased. 

These tailings are used for various purposes, but are gen- 
erally burned. They have a distinct value, as compared with 
coal, as afuel. Although the fires have to be carefully cleansed 
after each burniag of tailings, still they reduce the price of 
fuel per ton of garbage worked. 

In man}^ of the processes more of the tailings could be used 
for fertilizer if the process of separating them was complete. 
The only question is, would a more expensive process, and 
one taking more time, pay for the slight additional percentage 
of available tankage over and above the gain made by the tail- 
ings used as fuel ? 

DISPOSITION OF GASES. 

The gases and vapors that are driven off from the garbage 
during the working of the same are disposed of in two ways : 
By condensation and by cremation. 

Yapors that are condensed are liable to be more offensive 
in the end than those that are burned. Condensation, also, is 



23 

not liable to be very effective, as the foul vapors are driven 
off together with large quantities of steam. The steam and 
vapors will naturally mix as far as possible. These vapors, 
surcharged with steam, are carried to the condenser and there 
expected to take up or to be taken up by greater quantities of 
water. The condensed vapors, however, mixed with the water 
of condensation, are carried off to the sewer. 

Gases passing over with the vapors would presumably be 
washed in this process ; they would not of necessity be made 
harmless, and the water might be very disagreeable. 

Where the gases are burned, they are passed directly 
through the furnace fires and thence up the stack to the open 
air. They, together with the vapors, are heated to a high 
degree of temperature, or burned, and float away over the 
heads of the people, instead of running under their feet, as 
in the condensation process. If the stacks are high enough 
and the temperature sufiiciently great, these heated vapors 
will float to a long distance before cooling and descending to 
an objectionable level. They are probably by that time so 
mixed with air as to be scarcely appreciable. On damp or 
rainy days, however, they would undoubtedly be brought to 
the ground more rapidly than during dry weather. 

DISINFECTANTS. 

Sentiment controls largely the complaints which arise on 
account of garbage. 

The householder who properly separates the garbage will 
not find it more offensive than the soiled plates removed day 
by day from his table, and if the receptacle was as religiously 
cleansed as the soiled plates, there would be no offensive 
odors therefrom. Fresh garbage is inoffensive. 

Where garbage is collected and permitted to stand in 
quantities, it is not generally dangerous to life until it becomes 
putrid. This condition arises, of course, more rapidly during 
the heat of the summer than at other seasons of the year. 



'24 

Where this garbage is collected iu mass and allowed to stand, 
disiiifectants are undoubtedly necessary. This would also be 
the case where the collections are made, as they are in some 
cities, at intervals of three days, or, when Sunday intervenes, 
four days apart. 

Garbage collected every day can be hauled through the 
streets without being specially disagreeable to the passer by. 
It is not prejuaicial to the public health when fresh, and can 
not be generally considered so until it makes itself offensive. 

Disinfectants in general use are well known — chloride of 
lime, permanganate of potash, and the dead oils of tar. A 
very advantageous method of disinfecting both carts and 
garbage is in use in Buffalo. Creolin, mixed with water, is 
loaded in a tank charged with compressed air. This tank is 
fitted with a short hose and spray nozzle, and is attached 
to the cart. When the cartman finds a receptacle that in his 
judgment needs disinfecting, it is first emptied and then 
sprayed. The garbage on the cart is then sprayed with the 
disinfectant. This gives, apparently, very good results. 

Dead oils of tar and permauganate of potash are generally 
used in and about the works and on the floors thereof. The 
dead oils of tar, on account of their cheapness, and, because 
they have no appreciable odor of their own, are in common 
use. 

In the hydro- carbon processes, the hydro-carbons used 
while extracting grease are also well known as disinfectants, 
naphtha being generally used in the preparation of edible 
greases. In the mechanical processes or steam processes, 
steam itself is a disinfectant. Where rubbish such as tin 
cans, rags, etc., are disinfected, it is generally done with steam. 

Steam at a temperature of 220° F. will destroy all disease 
germs in four hours' time. Steam under pressure is more 
valuable, for the reason that it is more penetrating. Steam 
in motion is also more efficacious than steam at rest. 

Heat is the oldest disinfectant known. It is also probably 
the best, as it is destructive of all organic life. 



25 



DRYEES. 



The dryers in general use are cylindrical dryers, steam- 
jacketed, with revolving reels. The shell of the dryer is of cast 
iron or steel plate. The cast-iron shell is preferable, as it 
does not erode as rapidly under the action of the gases or the 
grinding of the material. The shell, also, of cast-iron dryers 
is not subject to leakage, as is frequently the case in steel- 
plate shells. 

The garbage is dried either while fresh or after treatment. 
Where fresh garbage is shot into the dryers, the swill water 
is advantageous, because it assists in disintegration. Tin cans 
and other hard refuse, such as crockery, etc., are also advan- 
tageous to a certain degree, as they help the revolving paddles 
to grind the material. It will thus be seen that a cylindrical 
dryer fills three positions when used on fresh garbage — it 
dries, it grinds and it cooks. The dried garbage, therefore, 
is pretty thoroughly cooked and pulverized when it leaves the 
dryer. In general, in this part of the process about 60 per 
cent, of moisture is driven off. 

The operations of dryers are continuous. They are loaded 
from the top and discharged from the bottom. There is no 
necessity of shutting them down except for repairs. 

When the material is dried after treatment, the dryer also 
acts partially as a mill, but in this case no cooking goes on. 
A certain proportion of foreign substance is also useful in this 
partial milling process. The work of the dryer in this latter 
case is not so great as where the green garbage is first dried, 
nor is the wear and tear on the machinery so great, nor is so 
much heat necessary, as there is a less quantity of moisture to 
evaporate. As will be readily seen, therefore^ the number of 
dryers per ton of garbage would be less than in the former 
case. 

The gases a.nd vapors driven off by the dryers go to the 
condensers or through the furnaces. In cases where cooking 
is first done, the gases and vapors go from the digesters to the 



2Q 

condensers or through the furnaces. The lead-pipes to the 
condensers or furnaces should be of cast iron, as wrought iron 
has not been found satisfactory in actual practice. This is 
due to the erosive effect of the vapors driven off. It is con- 
clusive, then, that it would be advantageous to have the 
dryers or digesters as close to the furnaces as is practi- 
cable. 

EXTRACTORS. 

The extractors and digesters as a rule are of about five 
tons capacity, although they are generally considered to hold 
much more. AVhether the overestimate is the fault of the 
constructors, or of the operators, it is difficult to ascertain, as 
the garbage treated therein varies in proportion of bulk to 
weight through the different seasons of the year. Con- 
structors are liable to make the extractors as small as pos- 
sible, on account of the room which they occupy in a build- 
ing. For this reason, their cubic contents may have been, 
in some instances, decreased. 

The operators are desirous of showing as large a capacity 
in their plant as possible, and, therefore, may overestimate 
the weight of green or dried garbage that the extractors 
hold. 

This portion of the machinery is built of varying weights 
of metal, as different operations and operators use different 
pressures of steam or naphtha, as the case may be. 

PRESSES. 

In cases where the grease is extracted by pressure, the 
presses inspected have been of the same general character. 
The results shown are sufficient to indicate that the pressing 
process, although more rapid than the naphtha process, does 
not extract so large a percentage of grease. Constant ad- 
vances are being made in this direction, however, and the 
presumption is that within a short time much better results 
will be obtained than at present from the press. 



27 

The tankage from the press is generally more noticeable, 
as far as odor is concerned, than that from the extractor in 
hydro-carbon or acid processes, the hydro-carbons and acids 
acting as deodorizers. As this tankage has been thoroughly 
disinfected by steam boiling, etc., and has been maintained at a 
temperature above 212° F. for several hours, it is presumably as 
thoroughly disinfected as m any other case, but there is a 
stronger odor which has been so frequently described as that 
of sweetened coffee, plum pudding, gingerbread, caramel, etc. 

The choice of a name depends largely upon the last 
dinner eaten. 

MILLING AND SCREENING. 

The milling and screening generally is done in separate 
rooms. The finished product is screened in rotary screens 
and the foreign substances and coarse material separated from 
the fine material. The foreign substances and coarse matter 
from the screen, generally termed tailings, are separated on 
the tailing-board. The coarse fertilizer stuff is carried to a 
mill and ground. The tailings, composed of combustible 
and non-combustible refuse (but very little of the latter), are 
burned or thrown away. The product of the mill is mixed 
with the screened material. 

In some cases, everything which comes from the dryer or 
extractor goes through the mill, only the coarser and more 
apparent waste being separated before milling. This gives a 
more even run of finished tankage, but presumably one that 
would not show so high an analysis, tankage being sold by 
analysis — that is, in accordance with the phosphoric acid, 
potash and ammonia contained therein. 

During the process of milling, care must be taken that the 
finished product does not ignite. There is so much iron and 
metal of other kinds in the finished tankage that care has to 
be observed to prevent firing in the mill. While milling or 
screening, also, quantities of fine dust are liable to be freed 
and mix with the atmosphere. It is this fine dust which 



28 



carries the odor from the factory, especially if the rooms be 
not closed and a breeze has an opportunity to get at this dust. 
It is a question, also, if the insurance companies do not con- 
sider that this floating material adds to the risk of insurance. 
That, together with the naphtha used in some processes, 
and acids in others, would, and probably does, afi'ect the 
rate of insurance. 

The dust from the mill is taken care of in various ways ; 
usually by means of a suction-fan, the mill itself being 
tightly enclosed. This dust on analysis shows a higher per 
cent, of merchantable products than the milled stuff itself, 
but it is so small in proportion to the bulk of material 
handled that it would scarcely pay to collect it. 

The screens used are of varying diameters and size of 
mesh. The rapidity with which they are revolved is also 
another factor to be considered. They clog chiefly from nails 
and rags, and it may be found necessary to stop them at in- 
tervals in order to free the mesh. These rags, by the bye, 
are a difficult factor in the working of garbage during nearly 
all stages of the process. 



Table Showing Quantity of Garbage Per Capita Collected. 

Buffalo 0.245 lbs. per day. 

Boston 0.946 

Wilmington 0.805 

St. Louis 0.277 

New Bedford 0.890 

Cincinnati 0.566 

Philadelphia 0.332 " " for 3 districts. 

Lowell 0.408 



29 



Table Showing Average Composition of Garbage and its Selling 

Value. 

Three thousand tons of summer garbage, from different 
cities, treated by different methods, show a general average 
composition of 

Rubbish, 7 per cent., or 140 lbs. per ton of garbage. 
Water, 71 " " 1,420 

Grease, 2 " " 40 

Tankage, 20 " " 400 " 

100 " " 2,000 " 

The selling value of a ton of garbage when thus treated is : 

Grease, 40 lbs., at 3 cts |1 20 

{ Ammonia, 13 lbs., at 8 cts 1 04 

Tankage -< Phosphoric acid, 13 lbs., at 1 cent 13 

' Potash, 3 lbs., at 3A cents 10 

$2 47 

■ Bespectfully submitted 

M. C. 



30 



Factory No. 3 of the St. Louis Sanitary Co., operating 
under tlie Merz process. 

Tlie buildings are situated in a hollow, so that garbage 
carts are able to drive into the upper story from tha level of 
the street and dump their loads directly into the receiving- 
tank. 

The cart entrance is shown on. the right. The building in 
the middle-ground contains the receiving-room on the third 
story, the receiving-tank in the second, and the dryers on the 
ground floor. On the left, the building contains the extract- 
ing room, the milling machinery, the shipping floor, etc. 



32 



Hotel Garbage. 



The disposal of garbage from the larger hotels and res- 
taurants in New York City long has been a subject of much 
concern to their proprietors and managers. The removal of 
hotel wastes was arranged for with private contractors before 
any City department was equipped for such work, and such 
contracts continued to be made after the Department of Street 
Cleaning came to be in a position to remove ashes and garb- 
age from hotels as well as from the residence districts. 
The reason is that, at the beginning, at least, the hotel men 
felt that a prompt and regular service by the City, at the early 
hours of the day desirable for the purpose, could not always 
be depended upon. They also considered that whatever value 
pertained to hotel waste should, if possible, become a source 
of revenue to the hotels. 

About ten years ago the then secretary of the Hotel Men's 
Association of New York — the late William D. Garrison, well 
remembered in connection with the Grand Union Hotel — pre- 
pared, at the request of the association, a report on the re- 
moval of hotel garbage and other wastes, which is said to have 
been a comprehensive study of the subject, pointing out the 
problems to be met, and describing the practice of hotel man- 
agers in the leading cities of the old world. The object of 
Mr. Garrison's investigation was to arrive at a basis on which 
proposals could be invited from contractors for handling the 
wastes from all the hotels embraced in the association, under 
a system which should relieve the managers of existing an- 
noyances and reduce the expenses of the hotels. Mr. Garri- 
son's report was printed in pamphlet form, but the Depart- 
ment has as yet been unable to procure a copy. No practical 
result followed the publication of the report, presumably be- 



33 

cause the showing made of the value of hotel garbage was not 
sufficiently promising. 

Visits to a number of large hotels have revealed the fact 
that the prevention of wastes is looked upon as an important 
detail of management, upon which may depend the question 
of profit or loss in the business. In a hotel employing hun- 
dreds of servants constant vigilance is necessary to prevent 
the loss, as refuse, of much material which can be profitably 
utilized within the establishment. The steward of one hotel 
explained the details of savings in this direction, instituted 
by himself, which equaled the amount of his salary. The man- 
agement of another hotel reported that their receipts from the 
sale of " swill " had declined from $1,200 a year to practically 
nothing — a fact doubtless due in part to the reduced amount of 
valuable material leaving the hotel in this shape. 

The various items which have to be disposed of in a hotel 
kitchen, by the way, are not all properly described as " waste," 
that term being regarded by managers as applicable only to 
materials which cannot be utilized within the establishment, 
or are not of immediate commercial value. Thus the greater 
part of the grease available in a hotel kitchen is not regarded 
as waste. One New York hotel, for instance, derives $2,000 a 
year from the sale of fats to a soapmaker. The manager of 
this hotel expresses the opinion that no public contractor 
need hope to derive very much grease from hotel garbage. 

Hotel garbage proper may be divided into two classes — 
meat trimmings and green wastes. 

(1) 3Ieat Trimmings, as those from steaks, chops, etc., in 
the preparation of *' orders," are saved — 

(a) for the daily rendering of grease from them, for 
sale to soapmakers ; 

(6) for rendering grease to be used in making soft 
soap in the hotel ; 

(c) for delivery to the butcher supplying meat to 
the house, the butcher converting them into soap- 
grease ; or 



34 

(d) for delivery, witliout rendering, to soapmakers 
supplying the liouse with soap. 

(e) Pork fats are used in the production of lard, 
materi'illy reducing, in some hotels, the expenditure for 
lard for frying. 

What remains after rendering grease and lard, together 
with remnants of meat from the table, can also be disposed 
of to the soap trade at a price which will pay for their collec- 
tion. 

(2) Green Wastes and broken food from the table go into 
the " swill " barrel. This is removed by contractors — 

(a) who pay for the privilege ; 

(b) who receive it in return for removing the ashes ; 

(c) who receive it in return for returning to the 
hotel all the silver and china found in the " swill " bar- 
rels. (The loss to hotels of silver is often large, 
and many houses pay cash for the return of pieces 
bearing their mark found anywhere in the garbage.) 

(d) Who receive it for no other consideration than 
its removal. 

Note. — Stale bread is saved at some hotels and used 
in part as a substitute for cracker dust, the remainder 
being salable at 35 cents per barrel. 

KEFUSE. 

The garbage of a hotel being disposed of, there siill 
remain three other items of refuse, viz. : Bottles, ashes 
and oyster-shells. Bottles of whatever sort which accumu- 
late in a hotel — other than those from the wine-room, which 
are returned systematically to dealers — including those col- 
lected from the guests' rooms, are sold. Ashes are kept sepa- 
rate, except with the addition of dirt from sweepings, and re- 
moved in some instances by the City, but oftener by private 
contractors, at the expense of the hotels. 



35 

Ojster-shells accumulate rapidly in their season, and 
are separated in some houses and removed by contract. 
In other hotels they find their way to the " swill " or ash- 
barrel. 

THE SWILL INDUSTRY. 

The handling of swill from the hotels of New York is 
largely centered in Secaucus, N. J., a scattering town or vil- 
lage five miles back of Hoboken, on land little suited for cul- 
tivation. So extensive is the business that one section of the 
town is known locally as " Swill City." The business is in 
the hands of Germans, each of whom has adjoining his home 
a " cooking-house " and a piggery or cattle-stalls, the princi- 
pal value of the swill being in its use for fattening. All the 
members of the family work, and, when the business in- 
creases sufficiently, help is employed. Wagons are run regu- 
larly between this place and the hotels in New York, with 
which the owners have contracts. For many years one T. 
Dwyer handled swill at Secaucus, being succeeded by Carl 
Schnell, whose establishment will be described as a typical 
one. 

By the side of a little unpainted residence, standing on an 
otherwise unimproved lot and just off the highway, is a 
wooden shed in which three large iron kettles are placed over 
furnaces, for " cooking " swill. The capacity of the kettles 
is about 1^ tons each. The swill, brought from the city in 
barrels, is emptied into the kettles until, with the added 
water, the kettles are filled, after which the mass is cooked 
for twenty-four hours. The grease which has risen to the 
top is then skimmed off with a tin ladle into barrels and 
allowed to cool. Next it is emptied into a small screw-press 
and the clear grease extracted by pressure. The yield of 
grease from IJ tons of garbage (estimate) averages about 40 
pounds, salable as " swill grease " to soapmakers at 2 cents 
on the spot, or 2h cents delivered in New York. The yield 
of grease is thus about 1.3 per cent of the weight of swill. 



86 

and its value from 53 to 66 cents per ton cooked, according 
to whether the grease is sold at home or in the city. When 
asked if the coal consumed did not exceed in cost the value 
of the grease, Schnell replied that it did, but that unless the 
grease were removed the swill would be injurious to the pigs. 
The profits of his business came from the feeding of about 
100 pigs and 10 cows, and the sale of the grease forms only 
a partial offset to the expense of handling the swill, includ- 
ing the necessary cooking. Any surplus cooked swill can be 
sold to neighboring owners of pigs for 17 cents per barrel. 

Some of the other handlers of swill at Secaucus are Frank 
Eckert, Charles Koegel, Miller, Kengel, Kundschaft, Schock, 
Heflich and George Lausieker. The last named is the 
largest of the operators, having succeeded to the business of 
one Kroll, of twenty years' standing. He is said in Secaucus 
to have handled for several years the sw411 from the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel and Delmonico's, paying $3,000 per year for the 
privilege. Lausieker occupies a small farm somewhat re- 
moved from the other parties named, for which he is said to 
have paid $16,000, made within a few years from his busi- 
ness. Lausieker lives in a neat painted cottage, but his wife 
was found outside handling stale bread gathered from the 
hotels; which is mentioned as typical of the close application 
and economy required to make money in this business. 

The swill industry is not confined, however, to Secaucus, 
or even to New Jersey. The garbage from certain hotels is 
removed to Barren Island, by P. White's Sons, of No. 41 
Peck Slip, New York, who have long had the contract for the 
removal of dead animals from the city. Mr. Thomas F. 
White, a member of this firm, informed me that they had at 
one time handled the city garbage, under contract, and that, 
about twenty-five years ago, they had experimented exten- 
sively with processes for converting it into grease and com- 
mercial fertilizers. Their experiments were so costly, how- 
ever, that the feature of grease extraction had not proved 
profitable up to the time that they were induced to give up 



37 

further efforts in this direction by the impossibility of get- 
ting the garbage free from ashes. The method of grease ex- 
traction employed by the Messrs. White involves the use of 
live steam introduced into the kettles instead of direct heat 
underneath. 

SOAPMAKEES. 

At the foot of West Forty-first street is the soapmaking 
establishment of James Stanley, who apparently conducts his 
business on a large scale, and who claims extensive relations 
with leading hotels, taking their grease and supplying them 
with soap. At the foot of West Thirtieth street — Nos- 
646-662 — John T. Stanley has a similar establishment, his 
business dating from 1859. According to the party first named, 
the two Stanleys are cousins, and they work on similar lines. 
They claim to collect the grease from nearly every important 
hotel or restaurant in New York having any to sell, but they 
take none from residences, and, according to James Stanley, 
no grease from " swill " has ever been offered to them. 

H. H. 



b8 



Garbage reception room of the St. Louis plant shown on 
page 31. The carts enter this room, the top story of the 
building, direct from the street and dump their loads into 
the chutes of the receiving tank, four of which are shown. 
Above each chute is a hood into which are drawn bj a strong 
draught all odors given off by the garbage, while fumes 
arising within the tanks are withdrawn through the pipes on 
the right. A vacuum gauge on each pipe shows the degree 
of exhaustion maintained. 



40 



Grease as a Garbage Product. 



The attention of the Department having been called to 
the importance of grease as an element of the great waste 
involved in the disposal of the City's garbage under existing 
methods, the following report has been made : 

In the absence of comprehensive data on the subject, the 
inference is justifiable, from numerous isolated established 
facts, that what is commercially known as " grease " is one of 
the most valuable items in the wastes in American industrial 
and domestic life which, almost to the present time, have gone 
unchecked. Evidence of this has been afforded at the great 
slaughter-houses in Chicago and elsewhere, at which the 
unsalable portions of the animals slaughtered, regarded as 
valueless, were at one time buried in the ground to avoid a 
nuisance. To day methods are in vogue by which valuable 
amounts of grease and glue are recovered from these sub- 
stances, the residuum being converted into fertilizers, so that 
there are no longer any waste products from well-managed 
slaughter-houses. In the washing of wools, the dressing of 
skins of wild animals killed for furs, and the tanning of hides, 
new sources of commercially valuable greases have been dis- 
covered, and the one-time nuisance of accumulated cotton seed 
in the Southern States has been turned to a source of great 
profit in the manufacture of oil suited to a great variety of 
purposes. 

But the waste of fats in city garbage has been tardily 
appreciated, although a lesson might have been learned long 
ago from the experience of the farmers' wives, who, by saving 
the meat and bone scraps from their kitchens, obtained suffi- 



41 

cient materials for their supply of soap before soap factories 
sprang up everywhere with their superior products. The 
municipalities of Continental Europe have been quicker to 
appreciate the value in the unpromising masses of waste which 
daily require to be disposed of, and in Berlin, Vienna, Buda- 
pesth, Breslau, Warsaw, Cracow and in other cities more or 
less revenue is derived from the sale of the garbage to private 
parties who devote themselves to the recovery from it (1) of 
grease, and (2) of glue, the residuum being converted into fer- 
tilizers. 

Evidence is not lacking in New York of the value of grease 
in garbage, since for some years past the wastes from some of 
the principal hotels have been removed by parties purchasing 
them for the purpose of realizing upon the grease contents, 
while some such collectors also regularly visit private houses, 
where the grease is saved for them. Grease has also been an 
object of interest and a source of profit to those contractors who 
for some years past have paid for the privilege of" trimming " 
the scows at the garbage-dumps in New York, Brooklyn, and 
elsewhere. In short, there can be no doubt that the animal fats 
contained in the wastes from the tables of a population so great 
as that of New York — especially in the absence of the econo- 
mies in all the details of life known in some of the older States 
of the world — and which at present are thrown into the 
garbage barrel, must annually reach a very heavy total. The 
actual amount, however, is yet a matter of conjecture. It 
has been customary for some time past for those who have 
devoted attention to the subject to estimate from 3 to 6 per 
cent, of the total output of city garbage as grease, the figures 
varying with the seasons — since more animal foods are con- 
sumed in winter — and with the sources of supply, garbage 
from the tenement districts being less rich in grease than 
from wealthier portions of the city. But taking 3 per cent, 
as a correct average estimate, the 800 tons of garbage col- 
lected daily in New York would yield 24 tons of grease, 
leading to a formidable aggregate in the course of a year. I 



42 

am informed by a broker that grease from garbage is now 
being produced in St. Louis at the rate of 2,000,000 pounds 
per year, but this includes the product from dead animals 
removed from the streets. 

Such grease as is obtainable from city garbage is quoted 
at from 3 to 4 cents per pound in the New York wholesale 
market. It remains to be determined whether the cost of 
extraction of grease by any known methods, when applied to 
all the garbage of a great city, can be reduced to a point 
which will permit of a profit, it being a requisite in such a 
city as New York that each day's collection of garbage should 
be disposed of within a day, and also that the plant should 
be sufficient not merely for the average amount of garbage 
collected, but for the maximum collections plus reserve 
machinery as a precaution against trouble through the break- 
ing down of a section at any time. But these are details with 
which the Department is already experimenting. 

WHAT IS GREASE ? 

It may be proper to quote here from a practical work, 
Gathmann's " American Soaps " (Chicago, 1893) something 
definite with regard to the nature of the product to which 
reference is made above : 

"The term 'grease,' as used commercially, comprises 
various fatty matters of animal origin that cannot be classed 
among the distinctive products, like tallow, lard, neatsfoot 
oil, etc. ' Grease ' is extracted from bones, hides, the refuse 
of kitchens, hogs that have died by being smothered or frozen 
in transit, and from those parts of all classes of animals which 
do not yield fat that might be classed with tallow or lard. 
Obviously, then, there are very many grades, varying in 
quality from fresh, white, and comparatively hard grease — 
which is better for soapmaking purposes than the lower 
grades of tallow — to dark, soft, and rancid grease, which may 
be hardly fit for soapmaking. Generally speaking, grease 
ranges itself along with tallow in its properties for the manu- 



43 

facture of soap. It contains the fatty acids as the latter, but 
olein is present in larger proportions as the grease is softer 
and, of course, the solid stearin and palmitin are correspond- 
ingly less, so that grease has a lower melting point than 
tallow. The result is that soap made from grease is softer, 
and also that grease saponifies somewhat less readily than does 
tallow. Being generally less fresh and pure and affected by 
a disagreeable odor, grease is not adapted for making soap 
without boiling, as the impurities and the odor must be re- 
moved ; the free fatty acids and unsaponifiable impurities in 
rancid grease make even a fair result by the cold process 
simply impossible. Besides, the soap from grease is darker 
than that from tallow." * 

There may be added here the definitions of grease now 
used in the published market reports, no separate quotations 
for garbage grease having yet appeared : 

White grease is chiefly from whole auimals, excepting the 
intestines. 

Brown grease is from the intestines alone. 

Yellow grease is made by packers from all their refuse, 
including animals that have died. 

THE SOAP INDUSTKY. 

The principal demand for the greases now in the market, 
both in America and in Europe, is from the soap manufact- 
urers. Within half a century soapmaking has advanced 

* Fats consist of fatty acids combined with glycerin. Those of chief 
importance in the present investigation are : 

Stearin (stearic acid combined with glycerin), which is one of the solid 
principles of fats, best obtained from tallow. It forms the harder descriptions 
of soap. 

Olein (Oleic acid combined with glycerin), constituting for the most part 
the fluid portion of oils and fats, and yielding a softer soap. Olein predom- 
inates in olive oil. 

Palmitin (palmitic acid combined with glycerin), is most abundant in palm 
oil, though also present in animal fats. 

Saponification is the term applied to every reaction by which fats are 
resolved into glycerin and fatty acids, and soap is produced by the combina- 
tion of the fatty acids with the alkalies used. Grease being a compound of 
many kinds of fat, it is difficult to determine, quantitatively, its proportion of 
olein, stearin, etc. 



u 



from the crude stages in which the rural housewife — in 
America, at least — was still the most important factor, to a 
finished branch of chemical industry, giving employment to 
many millions of capital, and yielding products worth a 
greater number of millions. What is more, the extent of the 
industry has steadily increased wherever it has found a foot- 
ing, and soap forms an item of growing importance of export 
from the manufacturing countries to those where modern soap- 
making is yet unknown. A single illustration of the growth 
of soapmaking in America may be gained by comparing the 
latest available United States census figures. The total value 
of soap and candles reported in the census of 1880 was 
$26,552,627, of which candles formed an inconsiderable part. 
The figures for 1890 have not been jjublished, but a compar- 
ison of fourteen towns most conspicuous for their soap 
production in 1880, showed an increase in the value of pro- 
ducts ten years later of 62|^ per cent. The increase for some 
of the towns is given herewith. 



Buffalo, N. Y.. 
Chicago, 111 ... . 
New York City 
Philadelphia, Pa 



1880. 



1890. 



$1,176,840 


$2,073,547 


3,627,310 


9,487,542 


3,697,964 


5,518,668 


2,033,403 


2,788,746 



In other lands a similar situation exists, reminding one, 
no matter whether the use of soap be classed as cause or 
effect, of Liebig's assertion that it is the measure of the 
civilization of a people. 

Whether or not the demand for the cheaper materials for 
soapmaking — such as grease — will suffer a decline from the 
discovery of other materials, is a question which has been 
discussed. The members of the trade with whom I have 
talked are agreed that nothing is to be feared on this score. 
The demand for cheap grades of soaps grows hand in hand 



45 



with that of the higher priced, and grease must ever remain 
a cheaper material than the other important substances 
named in this report. Such an authority as Mr. Henry Her- 
man, Superintendent for the Babbitt Manufacturing Company, 
expresses the opinion that the market for grease, as a 
material for soapmaking, cannot be overstocked, for the 
reason that, should the home demand at any time be fully 
supplied, there would still be an important export demand. 
It may be added that developments in other branches of 
science from time to time provide new nses for stearin, and 
other animal products, which in part prevents their prices 
from falling so low as to displace grease in the soap industry. 
In a table showing the prices of barrel tallow in New 
York for each month for ten years past, furnished by Mr. 
Horace W. Calef, a leading broker and a member of the Prod- 
uce Exchange, it appears that the price of common soap 
grades had been lower in six years in October than during Octo- 
ber, 1894, and that the price of edible tallow had been lower 
in the same month of seven years out of ten than at the date 
quoted. The average prices for ten years past are tabulated 
thus, the figures referring to cents per pound : 



Years. 


Average Lowest Market 
Price Each Month foe 
Common Soap Grades. 


Average Highest Market 

Price Each Month 

roR the Finest, Including 

" Edible " — Cleansed bt 

Naphtha. 


1885 

1886 


5.50 
4.09 
3.93 
4.90 
4.53 
4.41 
4.67 
4.48 
5.11 
4.71 


6.65 
4 90 


1887 


4 82 


1888 

1889 


5.69 
5 55 


1890 


5 17 


1891 

1892 

1893 


5.51 
5.39 
6 64 


1894 


5 86 









4(3 

These figures ure introduced to show that, despite the 
constant tendency to add to the list of products available 
for soapmaking, and the constant increase of production of 
some of the items, the price of tallow has been measurably 
well maintained. It is believed that the study of the prices 
of competing materials would show a similar result. 

COMPETING FATS FOR SOAPMAKING. 

Leaving out of consideration the higher classes of animal 
fats and palm oil and refined cotton-seed oil, there is still a 
long list of materials used by soapmakers, some of which 
are : 

Bone grease, obtained from boiling bones at fertilizer 
works and the like. 

Glue fat, the bone grease obtained in the operations of 
making glue. 

Horse grease, the fat of horses. 

" Kitchen stuff,'' the waste of kitchens. 

" Coon grease," obtained from the skins of muskrats and 
other animals killed for their furs. 

" Swill grease," obtained from hotels, as above described. 

Cotton-seed foots. — Crude cotton-seed oil is not well 
adapted for soapmaking, but requires refining. This is done 
with the addition of a small percentage of lye, which com- 
bines with the fatty acids into crude, black and dirty soap, 
which settles and leaves the oil above sweet and light in color. 
This sediment is marketed as a cheap soap stock, under 
the name of cctton-seed foots. The refined oil is largely used 
for making soap of a higher grade. 

THE USE OF SULPHUEIC ACID. 

My attention having been called especially to the subject 
of the use of sulj)huric acid in a garbage-reduction process, 
for facilitating the extraction of grease, I have made some in- 
quiries in relation to the effect of such acid upon the product. 



47 

Since no important amount of grease resulting from such a 
process has yet reached the market no definite results can be 
reported. Leading brokers with whom I talked, however, 
are unfavorably disposed toward grease with which sulphuric 
acid has come in contact. One of these, Mr. Horace W. Calef, 
at the Produce Exchange, said, in substance : 

It is the practice of soapmakers, on receiving grease con- 
taining sulphuric acid, to add soda to correst the acidity be- 
fore making any use of the grease, since the presence of the 
acid prevents the process of saponifying. This is not ex- 
pensive, except with respect to the time occupied and the 
labor of handling, though these features are sufficient to make 
such greases undesirable. But aside from the actual presence 
of the grease, it appears that the use of sulphuric acid in ex- 
traction processes results in a decomposed condition of the 
grease, which makes it "unmanageable," or less amenable to 
to the usual processes of soapmaking, not only adding to the 
labor and expense but rendering uncertain the results to be 
attained. Apart from the objections already named, sul- 
phuric acid in grease soon corrodes the pans used in soajD- 
making, attacking especially such exposed places as where 
rivets occur, and causes leaks. 

From another source the information was gained that 
grease extracted by methods employing sulphuric acid, even 
if none were retained in the grease, was apt to be discolored 
by the corrosion of the extraction tanks, if of iron, and such 
discoloration made the production unacceptable to soap- 
makers. 

An opinion was next sought from the soap-makers, and 
one was obtained from the superintendent of the Babbitt 
Manufacturing Company. He says that if grease does not 
contain more than 1 or 2 per cent, of sulphuric acid it is not 
objectionable, and that no extra treatment is necessary be- 
yond the use of an additional amount of alkali in saponifying 
the grease. He was not aware that the nature of the grease 
was in anywise changed by the action of the sulphuric acid 



48 

in the extraction process, or that it was rendered thereby 
" unmanageable." 

Next a chemist was consulted — Mr. Charles M. Stillwell, 
of the firm of Stillwell & Gladding, of No. 55 Fulton street, 
who have had much experience in the analysis of fertilizers. 
In his opinion the use of sulphuric acid would not necessarily 
prove injurious to the grease, provided that a concentrated 
acid is not used, and he referred to the use of dilute acid in 
extracting lard and tallow as the standard practice in certain 
countries. By the way. Dr. Muspratt, writing in 1860 of the 
extraction of animal fats, mentioned that in France and on 
the Continent, " for the separation of the fatty matters from 
the cells or tissues in which they are confined — the fatty 
matter is placed in contact with very dilute sulphuric acid." 
Afterward, " under the influence of heat and of the dilute 
acid, the albuminous tissue which envelopes the fatty matter 
is rapidly destroyed, and the latter, set free, floats on the sur- 
face of the boiling water — and the liquid fat is drawn off into 
a proper receiver." W. T. Brannt's work (Philadelphia, 1888) 
also refers to the rendering of tallow with an addition of 
dilute sulphuric acid as " a method now much in use in 
Europe." But the need of care in the use of sulphuric acid 
is shown, by the same author, in reports of processes " which 
frequently proved a failure through the sulphuric acid 
remaining too long in contact with the fat, resulting in a black, 
pitchy product of decomposition." I have met in more than 
one quarter, by the way, the suggestion that a question for 
serious consideration in the use of any method of garbage 
reduction involving the use of sulphuric acid is the liability 
of the acid to quickly corrode the iron tanks in which the 
garbage is boiled, making such a process expensive from the 
necessity of often renewing the plant. 

According to Mr. Calef, already quoted, the use of naphtha 
for grease extraction tends to no objectionable effect upon the 
grease produced, so far as soap-makers are concerned, except 
that the naphtha odor is apt to persist, and might exclude 



49 

the grease from use in soaps for which otherwise it would be 
fitted. There is already not a little " naphtha grease '' in the 
market, extracted for the most part from dead animals, etc. 

EFFECT OF GREASE IN FERTILIZERS. 

In discussing with Mr. Stillwell the question of fertilizing 
materials gained from city garbage, I asked whether, from 
the standpoint of the fertilizer trade, it was considered essen- 
tial that the grease be first removed from the waste matters. 
He replied that it was not, though it was preferable. The 
presence of the grease delayed the assimilation of the plant 
foods after the application of the fertilizer to the soil, as was 
proved by the better results obtained from bone fertilizers, 
made after the grease had been extracted by boiling, than from 
bones which still retained the grease. A second objection to 
the presence of grease was its tendency to hold the fertilizer 
in lumps, interfering with its regular distribution through 
drill-tubes or otherwise. Mr. Stillwell said, however, that few 
samples of fertilizer that had reached his laboratory from 
garbage-reduction works were free from grease, owing to the 
failure of most methods yet devised to fully extract the grease. 
Many such samples contained as much as 2 or 3 per cent, of 
grease. Estimating the weight of dried fertilizer at 20 per 
cent, of the original weight of the garbage, this would indicate 
that from 8 to 12 pounds of grease for each ton of garbage had 
not been extracted. 

MOISTURE IN GREASE. 

The weights given for grease extracted from garbage by 
the different processes, even after being more or less refined, 
are not always to be accepted as a measure of the marketable 
grease. There may remain, after refining, an excessive amount 
of moisture. The writer has seen lately a letter from a large 
soapmaking concern, making an offer for a certain grade of 
grease, conditioned on a deduction for all water contained in 
excess of 3 per cent. As the letter ran : " Water does not cost 



50 

the makers anything, nor should we be expected to pay for it." 
The percentage of moisture in grease may go largely in excess 
of this figure, however. 

SUMMARY. 

The points covered in this report, which has not entered 
into a comparison of the different methods of grease extrac- 
tion or their cost of operation, may be summarized : 

I. — Judged by individual examples, there must be a large 
quantity of commercially valuable grease in the City's garb- 
age now deposited at sea. 

II. — The experience of certain European cities suggests 
that its extraction undoubtedly could be operated as a source 
of profit — direct or indirect — to the City. 

III. — This grease is now in large demand by soapmakers 
at home, and for export. 

IV. — The soapmaking industry is one which grows con- 
stantly and promises to do so indefinitely. 

Y. — While there are soap materials which come into direct 
competition with grease, the indications are that it will not 
become less in demand, especially on account of its cheap- 
ness. 

VI. — The effect of adding to the market all the grease 
available from garbage in New York and other leading cities 
would not create too great a supply. 

VII. — The use of sulphuric acid in grease extraction will 
not necessarily injure the product or render it unsalable, but 
care is needed in the use of the acid in grease treatment, and 
the effect upon extraction plants is a problem worthy of seri- 
ous study. 

VIII. — Where the final object of garbage reduction is the 
manufacture of a fertilizer, the removal of the grease is desir- 
able, though its presence, wholly or in part, does not render the 
fertilizer unsalable. It might lead to lower prices, however. 

Eespectfully submitted 

H. H. 



52 



Centre of Dryer-Room of St. Louis plant, showing passage- 
way between two rows of dryers, with tlieir discharge-doors 
connecting with conveyor in the centre. The figure in the 
back-ground stands directly over the line of the conveyor. 
The dryers are fed from above, and all odors arising near the 
discharging doors below are drawn off through hoods which 
are plainly seen in double column in the illustration. The 
hoods are connected with a common exhaust pipe, which is 
shown above, and the fumes are forced by mechanical means 
through the fires of the boiler furnaces. 



54 



The Condition of the Fertilizer Trade. 



In connection with the subject of tlie disposal of City 
wastes by methods for resolving them into commercially val- 
uable products — possibly on terms which shall add to the 
public revenues — some inquiry has been made into the state 
of the fertilizer trade, since this is a field in which some of 
the prospective contractors for garbage reduction design to 
operate. There may be considered, first, 

THE DEMAND FOE FERTILIZERS. 

The use of commercial fertilizers is no longer confined to 
the *' scientific " farmer or to the mere experimenter ; it is 
already, in every civilized State, an important factor in rural 
economy. The production of such fertilizers, or of ingre- 
dients for them, is widely recognized as second in importance 
to no other branch of chemical industry. Its details are dis- 
cussed in the transactions of the leading associations in 
America and Europe devoted to advancement in the physical 
.sciences. Its results absorb the energies of trained workers 
at the hundred or more agricultural experiment stations in 
the world. It has not required a knowledge of chemistry, 
however, to impress upon the farmer who toils for his liveli- 
hood the need of a richer and more extensive source of 
manure supply than the barn-yard. 

Dating from Sir John Lawes's patent for superphosphate 
manufacture in 1842, and stimulated by the results of the 
notable experiments which have been continued by him to 
this day at Rothamsted, the demand for and the supply of 
commercial fertilizers have been steadily on the increase. 
The Patent Office records of the two continents reveal a re- 



55 



markable degree of activity in the search for means for sup- 
plying the soil with a maximum of available plant-food at a 
minimum price per unit. Not only have natural deposits 
been utilized — vast beds of guano, phosphate rock, nitrates 
and potash — but discoveries have been made in the way of 
utilizing slaughter-house refuse, the once valueless cotton- 
seed, slag from steel furnaces, etc., until almost the only 
waste available for fertilizers now remaining unutilized is that 
which lies at the doors of every great city in the form of 
garbage. 

The statistics of the fertilizer trade remain to be satisfac- 
torily compiled ; but Dr. Charles U. Shepard, a recognized 
authority on many points connected with the trade, estimated 
the world's consumption of commercial manures in 1892 as 
follows : 

In the United States 1,550,000 tons. 

In Europe 3,950,000 " 

Total 5,500,000 tons. 



Some idea of the rate of growth of their use maybe gained 
from the statistics of the yield of mineral phosphates alone, 
as shown herewith, in tons : 



Year. 


The World. 


United States. 


1880 


500,000 
1,303,000 


187,000 


1890 


577,000 


1894 


953,155 







Mr. Richard P. Rothwell has favored me with advance 
sheets of Volume III. of " The Mineral Industry," containing 
the following figures, prepared by Mr. E. H. Willis of .South 
Carolina : 



56 



Estimated Gonsum'ption of Gom,mercial Fertilizers in the 
United States. 

(In Tods of 2,000 pounds.) 



States. 



Ala^bama 

Florida 

Georgia 

South Carolina 

North Carolina 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Mississippi 

Arkansas 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

New England States 
Western States .... 
Northern States . 

Total 



1890. 


1891. 


1892. 


1893. 


40,000 


55,000 


40,000 


45,000 


20,000 


25,000 


20,000 


35,000 


200,000 


230,000 


175,000 


280,000 


125,000 


130,000 


110,000 


115,000 


95,000 


105,000 


90,000 


90,000 


30,000 


35,000 


30,000 


35,000 


15,000 


20,000 


15,000 


25,000 


12,500 


15,000 


10,000 


15,000 


10,000 


10,000 


10,000 


15,000 


10,000 


15,000 


10,000 


25,000 


12,500 


10,000 


5,000 


10,000 


70,000 


80,000 


55,000 


50,000 


25,000 


30,000 


25,000 


25,000 


105,000 


120,000 


100,000 


105,000 


75,000 


80,000 


75,000 


80,000 


350,000 


360,000 


305,000 


285,000 


1,195,000 


1,340,000 


],0T0,0C0 


1,225,000 



1 894. 

80,000 

50,000 

290,000 

150,000 

125,000 

40,000 

25,000 

25,000 

25,000 

25,000 

15,000 

90,000 

30,000 

120,000 

125,000 

365,000 

1,575,000 



Tn the State of New Jersey the reported sales of commer- 
cial fertilizers of all kinds increased from 30,163 tons, worth 
$1,070,113, in 1882, to 47,654 tons valued at $1,509,921 in 1892. 
It was stated two or three years ago that the capital invested 
in fertilizer works in Great Britain amounted to $25,000,000 
and that the product of these works had quadrupled within 
twenty-eight years. 

It has become recognized that " without abundant restitu- 
tion it is simply a question of time until all soils must be- 
come practically exhausted. Already the farmers of New 
York State are able to reap only one-third as much wheat per 



57 

acre as at the beginning. Centuries of harvesting in the 
ancient grain-producing countries of the world has reduced 
the original stock of assimilable phosphoric acid to a point 
where the cereals may no longer be profitably cultivated, and 
natural recuperation, if possible, involves cycles of time.'' 
The existence of fertilizer factories in the states of California, 
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin is in- 
dicative of the gradual exhaustion of soil that was virgin in 
character within this generation and honestly believed to be 
inexhaustible by tillage. 

While there are many branches of manufacture in this and 
other countries which seem to have reached the limit of de- 
mand, and to be incapable of further profitable extension, uo 
limit is conceivable beyond which the demand for fertilizers 
will cease. So long as crops are drawn from the soil, plant- 
food must be restored to prevent retrogression, but the ex- 
perience of many farmers has been — on Long Island, for 
instance — that by judicious manuring the fertility of tbe soil 
may be steadily increased and the average yield for all crops 
enlarged. This possibility affords to the agriculturist almost 
his only ray of hope, and the fact rises to the dignity of an 
important principle of political economy. Some such consid- 
eration has led a president of the American Chemical Society 
(Dr. Harvey W. Wiley) to declare the United States to possess 
enough arable soil to sustain a population of 1,000,000,000 
souls. On the other hand, in the absence of a knowledge of 
fertilizing, we might be able to discern the extinction of the 
race through starvation. 

But the conditions of supply and demand in the business 
of feeding the soil are yet far from perfect, and this leads to 
the subject of 

THE STATE OP THE FERTILIZER TRADE. 

^Here will be given a review of the situation, substantially 
as expressed by Mr. Adolph Hirsh, a member of the import- 
ant firm of Heller, Hirsh & Co., dealers in fertilizers and fer- 



58 

tilizer ingredients, at No. 64 William street, New York. It 
may be added that similar views have been obtained from 
others engaged in the trade. 

The manufacture and sale of fertilizers in the United 
States are carried on under conditions which are generally 
unsatisfactory. Aside from the effects of business depression 
which have been felt of late in most industries, certain ele- 
ments which seem inherent in the fertilizer business render 
profits more or less uncertain. As an instance of the effects 
of depression, one manufacturer asserts that the low prices 
obtained for cotton in a recent year resulted in curtailing the 
sales of fertilizers for the following season in the cotton States 
by one-half, while the value of the outstanding bills for fer- 
tilizers sold in that region was depreciated 50 per cent, by the 
reduced ability of the planters to pa3^ 

A perennial disadvantage under which the fertilizer trade 
labors is one which is shared by every industry dependent 
chiefly upon the farming class for sales. No prejudice to 
this class of citizens is implied, but it is plain that the indi- 
vidual farmer, who has cash with which to pay his bills only 
once a year, when his crops have been harvested, and who 
has no cash even then should the yield be poor, or if his crop 
should be unsalable on account of a superabundant yield, is 
a less satisfactory customer for the manufacturer than is the 
large jobber or wholesale dealer who contracts for the entire 
product of a mill, perhaps, and is able, through the possession 
of ample capital, to pay his bills at specified dates, or even to 
buy for cash and thus obtain a discount. The fertilizer trade 
is in no way comparable to the shoe industry, for example, 
which produces an article in demand the whole year round 
by every class of citizens. Since the fertilizer trade must be 
conducted upon a basis of long credits — without certainty 
that bills will be paid when due — a larger capital is requisite 
in proportion to the amount of business done than in many 
other lines of trade, a fact which is so often overlooked by 
those entering the trade as to lead to a crop of failures, or 



59 

at least a season of embarrassment, whenever the farmers as 
a class become unable to meet their obligations at maturity. 
While all the fertilizer manufacturers do not, as a matter of 
fact, sell directly to the farmers, the effect is practically tlie 
same, since the goods are disposed of through more than 20,- 
000 agents, the majority of whom are general storekeepers in 
villages in the agricultural districts, who are patronized di- 
rectly by farmers, and who cannot pay their own bills until 
collections have been made from the farmers. 

The number of fertilizer manufacturers is legion. In 1892 
the New Jersey authorities compiled a list of 99 firms who had 
sold fertilizers in that State within the year. During the Fall 
of 1894, the New York Agricultural Experiment Station made 
analyses of 144 brands of fertilizers, manufactured by 46 dif- 
ferent firms in 8 states. But there are fertilizer works in 
nearly every state, the cost of freights tending to concen- 
trate the manufacture in the sections where a demand 
exists for products. As in most lines of manufacture — and 
especially in those comparatively new — a conspicuous exam- 
ple of profits is sufficient to tempt men without experience to 
enter the fertilizer industry, with the result of continually 
demoralizing the trade by price cutting, either through mis- 
taken ideas of the proper figures to insure a final profit or 
through recklessness when on the brink of failure. The bit- 
ter competition in the trade, which robs it of every element 
of stability (except the continued demand for fertilizers), is 
due, not only to the large number of manufacturers, but to 
the presence among them of so many who are poorly equipped 
for business. The competition is especially marked in the 
attempts to gain new buyers of fertilizers. It is not strange, 
therefore, that a crisis now and then results, which is sur- 
vived only by the most substantial firms in the trade, although 
the demand for fertilizers, taking the country as a whole, and 
the production to meet it are steadily on the increase.* 

* In connection with this apparently paradoxical claim, the writer may state 
that similar conditions exist, to his knowledge, in other branches of industry, 



60 

It; is sometimes supposed that a strong central association 
of fertilizer manufacturers exists for the regulation of prices 
and other features of the trade, but this is not the case. 
Some years ago the New York Fertilizer and Chemical Ex- 
change was organized, with some such ends in view, but it 
was short-lived. There are now some local organizations, 
however. " The American Fertilizer," a monthly journal 
published in Philadelphia, is advertised as "the official 
organ of ' The Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers in the 
West ' and ' The Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association of 
Maryland.' " 

In nearly every state there are laws regulating the sale of 
commercial fertilizers, and imposing, in one form or another, 
a tax upon sales sufficient to defray the expenses of state 
supervision, and, in some cases, to contribute something to 
the public treasury. But the taxes thus levied are less oner- 
ous to the trade than the other restrictions imposed by law. 
Where the state laws require analyses of all fertilizers, the 
chemists to whom the samples must be submitted are not. 
always the most competent ; or, if the sampling be done by 
the farmers, as is often the case, it is not properly done, and 
the resulting analysis, no matter how correct, does an injus- 
tice to the goods when it is printed and scattered broadcast 
in the state official reports. Furthermore, in every state 
where laws have been enacted in relation to the collection of 
bills for fertilizers, the advantage is on the side of the pur- 
chaser as against the manufacturer of fertilizers. Thus, in 
one State (Florida), the law provides that the purchaser of a 
fertilizer who is satisfied, after its use, that it is not what it 
was represented to be, cannot be made to pay for it ; it is 
even said that, if other goods are sold to a farmer on the 

and especially in the newer ones. The rapid increase in bicycling and the im- 
mense total production of wheels might imply that great profits were being 
made in the manufacture of pneumatic tires. Yet an intimate acquaintance 
with the trade enables me to assert that some of the largest firms making rub- 
ber tires have done so up to date at a probable loss. They continue in the 
business, however, in the hope of ultimate profits. 



61 

same bill with a fertilizer which fails to produce results satis- 
factorj^ to the farmer, he is not obliged to pay for anything on 
the bill. The agrarian elements in the legislatures seem to 
have pursued the fertilizer trade as relentlessly as they 
formerly assailed the railroads. 

To summarize the unfavorable conditions of the fertilizer 
trade in America, they may be ascribed to 

I. — The long credits necessary in dealing with farmers and 
the lack of business methods among this class in making pay- 
ments, made worse by the uncertainty of crops, which are the 
farmers' sole resource. 

II. — The unregulated and often reckless competition, in a 
widely-scatterell trade, in which there are many weak and 
some unprincipled operators. 

III. — Legislation in many States inspired from sources 
unfriendly to the fertilizer trade. 

ly. — At present, the effects remaining from the recent 
period of business de^Dression. 

THE EFFECT OF A LARGE NEW SUPPLY. 

The production of what are known commercially as " com- 
plete fertilizers," * which would result from the treatment of 
the garbage of New York City by such a process as that of the 
American Reduction Companj^, would amount to from 90,000 
to 100,000 tons per year. Some opinions have been obtained 
of the probable effect upon the fertilizer trade of the sudden 
addition to the market of such an amount. The views here 
quoted are those of Mr. Charles V. Mapes, Jr , of the Mapes 
Formula and Peruvian Guano Company of New York, corrob- 
orated by the members of the trade already referred to. 

The amount of complete fertilizer involved is not necessa- 

* " Complete fertilizers are made by mixing a number of crude products, 
each of which contains one or more of the following elements of plant-food, 
viz .: Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash." — New Jersey Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station Report, 1893. 



62 

rily sufficient to disturb prices, since it is small in proportion 
to tlie annual consumption in this country. It is only three 
times the present consumption of complete fertilizers in the 
State of New Jersey alone, where the sales of this grade of 
fertilizer have doubled within ten years. But everything de- 
pends on the method of introducing the new product. The 
presence in the market of only a few thousand extra tons, 
offered injudiciously — say, in considerable amounts to brokers 
or others whose requirements are small — might tend seriously 
to demoralize prices. The amount named as the probable 
product from New York garbage is twice as great as that pro- 
duced by the largest present manufacturer of complete ferti- 
lizers, and this is a house which has existed for thirtj^-three 
years, and presumably has been trying during all this time 
to extend its trade. It is three or more times as great as the 
product of the Mapes Company, who have been in the field 
for fifty years, and who, by unceasing activity, have accumu- 
lated in that time a list of 1,000 agents and customers. The 
Mapes Company, however, sell a more expensive grade of 
fertilizers than most of their competitors. 

It would be necessary for any company producing such 
an amount of fertilizer to be provided with ample capital to 
cover the cost of operation for a year, within which time but 
small returns from sales could be hoped for, even if the prod- 
uct should be fully disposed of. The need for capital would 
be enhanced b}^ the certainty that many bills would not be 
met at maturity, and by the possibility of wholly bad debts. 
The selling expenses for fertilizers are yet very heavy. The 
usual charge by brokers is $5 per ton for all amounts handled 
by them, beside which there are charges for advertising, 
analyses, state taxes, etc., to be met. Allowance would have 
to be made for the time required for the new product to win 
a reputation. If offered to customers of firms already in the 
market, it would have to be shown to be a better fertilizer 
than is now sold for the same money. If new customers (i. e., 
persons not now buying fertilizers) were sought, all the ex- 



63 

penses of establishing a pioneer business would have to be 
met. While it is true that the commercial values of fertil- 
izers are based upon their chemical analyses, a favorable 
chemist's report alone is not sufficient to recommend a fertil- 
izer to farmers. It is known, for instance, that the nitrogen 
contained in one fertilizer may be twice as valuable for plant- 
food as the same amount in another ; although it is impossible 
by chemistry to determine the difference, which is due to the 
different sources of the nitrogen. In brief, a new fertilizer 
would need the test of time, and favorable reports from its 
use on farms, before large sales would be possible. 

It should be taken into account that the present leaders 
in the fertilizer trade have grown up in it, accumulating their 
experiences and their trade connections gradually and at a 
heavy cost, and that a new firm, working on a large scale, 
might at times find themselves at a disadvantage in compe- 
tition with such men. One thing to be expected is that the 
product of fertilizers by a firm so important as the holders of 
a contract for the garbage disposal for the City of New York 
would find the whole trade combined against it, should they 
offer a complete fertilizer to the trade, whereas if the City 
entered into a contract with parties for the conversion of its 
garbage merely into a fertilizer filler, all the fertilizer manu- 
facturers would come into the market as buyers, welcoming 
every increase in the production of such material. 

Note. — The expression of personal views has been care- 
fully avoided in this report. The matter contained under the 
first •heading is based upon an examination of the literature 
of the subject, while under the remaining heads an effort has 
been made to quote accurately the views of men of established 
reputation in the handling of fertilizers. 

Eespectfully submitted 

H. H. 



64 



Second-story room of plant of American Reduction Com- 
pany, Pittsburg, Pa. In the background are seen the lower 
portions of five cooking-tanks or extractors, closed at bottom 
by large valves through which, at the proper time, without 
exposure to air, the contents of the tanks are admitted to the 
dryers below. 

This feature of operation' has been adopted by the Holthaus 
Company also. In Philadelphia the Arnold plant drops the 
tank contents in the same manner into a slop-tank from which 
the material is later taken out by elevator to be delivered to 
the press. 



66 



The Junk Cart Trade. 



The junk cart is a familiar object on city streets, but the 
average citizen has little idea of the volume and extent of 
the trade carried on in this crude manner, nor of the part 
the cartmen play in gathering and disposing of the City's 
refuse. The following notes were made by Mr. Hill after a 
thorough investigation of the subject, and afford material aid 
in determining to what extent these carts are a nuisance or a 
benefit. 

JUNK CABTS. 

The carts with jangling bells, pushed about the streets of 
New York by junkmen, are licensed by the City and subject 
to inspection by the Mayor's Marshal. Each cart is required 
to be plainly lettered with the name and address of the 
licensee and its license number. Licenses cost five dollars 
per cart for the first year, and two dollars and a half for each 
annual renewal. The number of junk cart licenses in effect 
when the Marshal's lists were last revised was 430, and the 
number of carts in use was probably about the same. 

As a rule, these carts are not owned by the men who push 
them, but by licensed junk dealers having fixed places of 
business. A single dealer is reported to own a dozen or 
more push carts, and others half as many, though the number 
is oftener only one or two. A man found pushing a cart, 
who has been in the junk business for thirteen years, said 
that he knew of only a half-dozen men who owned the carts 
they pushed. The custom is not to pay wages to the cart- 
pushers, but to supply them every morning with a certain 
sum of money for the purchase of rags, metal, etc. At the 
end of the day, they return with what they have collected to 
the dealer, who, if he should consider it worth more to him 
than the cartmen have given for it, pays them the difference 



67 

in cash, this being their compensation. Should he not regard 
it as worth the price paid by the cartmen with his money, 
they would be held to be in debt to him, besides having lost 
their time. A diligent cartman may tramp all day without 
finding a chance to buy anything in his line, while oppor- 
tunities are constantly becoming fewer for picking up any- 
thing merchantable without pay. 

In the early morning, before the cart pushers have had 
time to cover the City, men and women with bags slung over 
their shoulders are carefully gleaning in ash cans and garbage 
barrels, and looking for stray articles upon the streets. Sev- 
eral sucli collectors may often be seen at once, and they will 
even contest for the possession of an especially desirable 
" find." I have seen a man with a push-cart go up and down 
the streets for hours, apparently without looking at a garbage 
barrel. The contents of the upper parts of these receptacles 
had already been gleaned, and the material in the bottom 
could not be examined without emptying the whole upon the 
ground. A visitor to a junk shop will see a stream of people, 
young and old, bringing in scraps and waste — from a single 
worn-out rubber shoe or some broken brass lamp burners 
up — for all of which the dealer is ready to pay cash. It is 
not strange, then, that in many parts of the city little is to 
be found in the garbage barrels worth the attention of the 
push-cart man, who perhaps has a family to support and is 
on the lookout for rubbish of more value. 

THE CARTMEN. 

The men sent out with push-carts select their own terri- 
tory. One who means business will start early and push his 
cart through the streets all day, if he does not sooner fill it, 
often walking twenty miles, in good and bad weather alike. 
The jangling bells advertise his business in quiet neighbor- 
hoods, and he keeps his eyes upon the windows in hope of an 
invitation to come within and drive a bargain in rags. He 
becomes known at certain houses and is encouraged to call 



68 

at regular intervals and take away tlie accumulated rags and 
other wastes. He is not averse to questioning any servants 
who may be visible as to the prospect of finding something 
to buy within. In some households there are sharp bargain- 
drivers even in the sale of rags, while in others there is gen- 
uine liberality. Sometimes the cart pusher's work is light- 
ened by the receipt, at the junk dealers, of a notice that a 
cart is wanted at a certain house, and he finds a load waiting 
upon his arrival. But if a really valuable lot is in prospect, 
the junk dealer may decide to handle it without the inter- 
vention of a cartman. 

Often the same streets are traversed, day after day, by 
several carts, owned by people not connected with each other. 
In walking down Second avenue one morning, I saw two carts 
near the avenue in Eighth street, two more in Seventh street, 
and one each in Fifth and Fourth streets. These six carts 
were owned by five junk dealers, scattered over the territory 
reaching from Spring street to East Thirty-ninth street, and 
from Second avenue to Wooster street. Such a profusion of 
carts is not unusual and serves to explain the meagre collec- 
tions made by some of them. In West Fourteenth street I 
encountered an Italian push-cart man whose work during the 
first half of the day had rewarded him with (1) a few handfuls 
of coal from the ash barrels in front of a church; (2) a bundle 
of rags from one house out of many he had entered, including 
a ragged coat, which I saw him offer in vain to each of several 
wandering old-clothes men ; (3) a worn whisk-broom and a 
soiled towel from a barrel in front of a dentist's office ; and 
(4) less than two dozen bottles of various sizes. Yet this man 
seemed active and anxious for business. He sold the bottles 
to a dealer whose store he passed, and continued his search 
for rags and for a purchaser of the old coat. 

VOLUME OF TRADE. 

Junk dealers buy chiefly rags, bottles, old rubber, all 
kinds of metal, and the better grades of waste paper. The 



69 

cartmen pay cash for whatever they buy, and, in turn, they 
sell for cash to the junk dealers. The latter generally sell 
also for cash, though their stocks are not always so promptly 
disposed of. These small dealers usually dispose of their 
collections to larger ones in the same business, who sell direct 
to parties who finally dispose of the materials. For instance, 
rag-dealers sell to the paper mills ; old rubbers go to the 
rubber-reclaiming factories, and so on. To aid in estimat- 
ing the volume of the junk cart business, I have tried to learn 
something of the entire volume of trade of which it forms a 
part. But the people in the junk trade are not always well 
posted with regard to it, and inquiries with regard to what 
they do know are apt to be suspiciously received and 
evasively answered. 

EUBBER SCEAP. 

I am assured that the yearly collection of old rubbers in 
the United States now amounts to about 16,000 tons, yielding 
25,000,000 pounds of reclaimed rubber for the use of manu- 
facturers. The books of one reclaimed-rubber factory show 
the expenditure, within twenty-four months, of about $750,- 
000 for 11,000 tons of old rubber shoes. Such scrap is now 
worth 5^ cents per pound delivered at the factory, though at 
times the price declines to 3 cents. It is not probable that 
the cart pusher gets more than half these prices for his col- 
lections. No other description of junk is so salable as 
old rubber, and it always commands cash, whether a 
single boot or a carload may be changing hands. Conse- 
quently the push-cart men are careful to pick up as much 
rubber as possible. But they are not always first to reach 
the garbage barrels, as I have explained, and many old 
rubbers go direct to junk dealers without having been put 
out on the street. Many old rubbers are left in shoe- 
stores by purchasers of new ones, and these are called for 
regularly by persons who make a business of it. Finally, 
in the mass of rags and other junk collected at the city 



70 

garbage-dumps, there is a considerable quantity of rubber 
scrap, which finds its way to the larger junk dealers. The 
latter dispose of their holdings from time to time to the 
rubber-reclaiming people, who buy preferably in carload lots. 

When it comes to determining how much rubber scrap 
is gathered in New York City alone — even without dis- 
tinguishing between the classes of collectors — the difficulty 
is that the rubber-reclaiming companies, when they buy 
from New York Junk dealers, get all the material which has 
been shipped to the latter from the surrounding country, 
and even from distant states. One who stands at the 
entrance to a large rag store will find a steady procession 
of wagons, big and little, bringing waste materials from all 
over the city, from Brooklyn and New Jersey, and from the 
railway stations through which freight from the whole 
country reaches New York. Where these rags and other 
articles have been sorted, and the rubber scrap laid aside, 
it is impossible to say how much of it should be credited 
to the city alone. A well-informed buyer of old rubbers 
was asked for his opinion of an estimate made by me of 
the amount gathered in New York, based upon the com- 
parative population of the city and the rest of the United 
States in which rubbers are largely worn. This estimate 
gave 900 tons a year. " Five hundred tons would be a 
safer figure,'' said he : " and yet I don't know whether 400 or 
750 tons would be the more accurate statement. I am not 
willing to be quoted as the author of any statement." It 
was found that he expressed the sentiments of many others 
in the trade. 

This matter has been introduced in detail to illustrate 
how difficult it would be to estimate the amount of rubber 
scrap collected by the push-carts. 

OLD BOTTLES. 

Similar difficulties exist with regard to each branch of 
the junk business. The trade in old bottles, for example. 



71 

is enormous, several large establishments being devoted to it. 
At one store I was told that 5,000,000 bottles were kept in 
stock, that carload lots were received from different large 
cities, and that expensive exports were made to Europe. Yet 
I saw the proprietor take the time personally to buy seven- 
teen bottles from the Italian junkman already mentioned. 
Bottles from every junk shop in town are liable to reach such 
stores during a day, besides bottles from the garbage-dumps, 
bottles by the wagon-load from large hotels, bottles from res- 
idences brought by servants, and bottles from push-cart men 
direct. And not a dealer in the business has an idea how 
many bottles are gathered by the latter class of collectors. 
The same is true with regard to rags, lead pipe, old iron, 
paper, fragments of plate, willow-ware and an interminable 
list of other articles collected by the push-carts. Nor does it 
help materially to interview individual cartmen. One might 
collect to-day three or four gross of cognac bottles, which sell 
at the highest price, and to-morrow find only a dozen cheap 
pickle bottles. Keeping no memoranda, they know neither 
the average of their business nor its aggregate for a given 
period. 

AN ESTIMATE. 

I have prepared a rough estimate, however, based upon 
one or two facts. The amount of money generally supplied 
to the cart-pushers at the beginning of the day is two dollars, 
which may be regarded as having been indicated by practice 
as the average limit of a day's transactions. The junk- 
dealers with whom I talked were unanimous m complaining 
of the difficulty of getting trustworthy cartmen. The cart- 
men themselves have told me of whole days in which they 
could make nothing at all. These men as a class impress one 
as having a very limited earning capacity, so that $1 per day 
is probably a fair estimate of their average profits. Sup- 
pose, then, that the cartmen invest on an average $2 per day, 
and that the material collected by them is sold to the junk- 
dealer for $3, and is sold by liim in the end for $4, we have 



72 

this estimate of the extent of the push-cart business for a 

year : 

400 carts (average) for 300 working days, each 

collecting $2 worth ". $240,000 00 

Add $1 per day per cartman 120,000 00 

Amount paid out by junk dealers. $360,000 00 
Add 33 1 per cent, for dealers' profits 120,000 00 

Proceeds of sales to larger dealers $480,000 00 

Of course no claim for accuracy is made for this estimate ; 
it is offered rather as a basis for further investigation. 

PAPER- CARTS. 

Another class of licensed push-carts, by the way, is em- 
ployed in the paper trade, which is almost monopolized by 
Italians, whereas the junk business is yet largely in the hands 
of Irishmen. These carts, instead of having the square box 
form of the junk-carts, are simply long frames mounted on 
two wheels, over which bags of paper are piled up until no 
room can be found for another. The paper gathered by these 
people is not paid for ; doubtless they are sometimes paid 
for removing rubbish, so cheap has paper become in recent 
years. It has a low value even when assorted and delivered 
at the paper-mill. The junk-cart man doesn't trouble himself 
about paper, and it is wanted in the junk-shop ouly when of 
a superior quality. 

SUMMARY. 

1. There are about 430 licensed push-carts gathering junk, 
owned mostly by keepers of junk-shops, who supply money 
to the men pushing the carts and buy from them the material 
collected. 

2. To report the volume and value of the push-cart collec- 
tions would be impossible without much investigation of indi- 
vidual cases. 



73 

3. The best that can be done now is to assume that an 
average of 400 carts are in daily use, buying each $2 worth 
of junk, which would give $800 worth of collections per day. 
I should add to this 75 to 100 per cent., as representing the 
value of the junk collected when transferred from the smaller 
to the larger dealers, of which perhaps an average of $1 per 
day would go to the cart pushers. This would give a final 
value of $420,000 to $480,000 for • a year's collections by the 
carts. 

4. No account is taken here of another class of licensed 
carts employed in the collection of paper, for which the cart 
men pay nothing. 

5. There would be no special hardship to the cart 
pushers in suppressing their traffic, since they are a shifting 
class, and not to be regarded as men having a regular 
occupation. 

6. The junk shops are licensed, at fixed places of busi- 
ness, reasonably convenient to nearly every quarter of the 
city, and easily found by people having waste materials to 
sell. 

7. Some of the junk-shops seem to depend largely upon 
the cartmen for the collection of their stock in trade, while 
others assert that the push-carts bring in but a small percent- 
age of what they handle, showing that the carts are not essen- 
tial to the junk trade as a whole. 

8. Yet it would seem that junk dealers should be as free 
as people in other legitimate branches of trade to employ 
such carts as may be needed in their business, provided that 
no nuisance results. 

9. I would submit that the apparent nuisance in the case 
of the junk carts — aside from their jangling bells — is less 
than that of hav/kers of many kinds on the streets, since the 
cartmen do not cry their business. They have appeared to 
me to create fewer nuisances with regard to raking over 
garbage cans than the gleaners who carry their collections on 
their backs. H. H. 



74 



The bank of dryers of the American Reduction Company 
in Pittsburg, Pa. The large gear-wheels operate the shafts 
of revolving reels inside the dryers referred to on page 84.' 
This illustrates the usual form and arrangement of drying 
machinery for garbage plants. 



76 



Processes and Appliances. 



Frequent mention has already been made, intlie foregoing- 
reports, of the processes and the machinery employed by the 
various reduction and utilization plants. The following papers 
contain a brief description of these processes and of the 
mechanical devices necessary to their operation. Inasmuch, 
also, as cremation is in vogue in many sections, a description 
of a crematory may prove of interest ; while in conclusion is 
given a bird's-eye view of what is being done with garbage 
the country over in the principal cities and towns. 

PROCESSES OF REDUCTION AND THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED. 

City garbage from kitchens and markets consists of about 7 
per cent, rubbish — cans, bottles, rags, etc, — 70 per cent, 
water, 3 per cent, grease and 20 per cent, of a mixture of ani- 
mal and vegetable dry matter, which is generally sold without 
further separation to manufacturers who make it up into fer- 
tilizer. 

To cook the raAv garbage and separate it into these four 
substances — rubbish, water, grease and fertilizer material — is 
the object of all garbage reduction or utilization systems. 

The rubbish has scarcely enough value to repay its separa- 
tion, and the water has none at all. To get rid of these two 
substances is the expensive part of any reduction process. 

The grease when reasonably free from other matter is 
easily sold for 3 cents per pound, and the dry matter — gen- 
erally known as " tankage," from having been cooked in large 
iron tanks, sells for about $6 per ton. 

The percentages of composition vary from city to city, and 
«|ii^ any city vary with the season ; the prices to be obtained 
for grease and tankage vary with the quality of each, but the 
above figures may be taken as fair average statements. 



77 

Tlie main differences between reduction systems are due to 
variation in methods of separating the grease and water from 
the solids ; minor differences arise from greater or less refine- 
ment of method in treating grease and tankage to increase 
their selling value, and from greater or less success in pre- 
venting the escape of odors during cooking and drying. 

The special machinery used in some or all of these pro- 
cesses consists of cooking-tanks sometimes known as digesters 
or extractors, presses, dryers, fume destroyers, grease-ex- 
tracting tanks, naphtha tanks, naphtha condensers, screening 
apparatus, and disintegrators or mills for grinding the coarse 
dry material. ^\^ 

The term cooking-tank is always understood to mean an 
upright steel cylinder with steam-tight doors at top and bot- 
tom for filling and emptying. The cylinders are of varying 
size, but generally from twelve to fifteen feet high by five to six 
feet wide, and built to contain five or six .tons of garbage, 
always fitted with pipes and valves for the admission of steam 
to cook the contents, and sometimes provided also with steam 
jackets. These tanks are supported on suitable iron framing, 
are easily filled and emptied, and six or seven hours generally 
suffices for the operation of cooking. Those who use cooking- 
tanks use them in the first operation, some sending in live 
steam only, and some steam and naphtha for the purpose of 
more complete deodorization. \^ 

Presses are used by some companies to force out water 
and grease from the cooked material before it goes to the 
dryer. These are generally of simple design, consisting of 
one or more perforated cylinders, which are filled with tank- 
age and slowly compressed by pistons until a large part of 
the water and much of the grease has been squeezed 
out. To get rid of the water in this way is cheaper than to 
evaporate it from such a soggy mass, and it is also a cheap 
method of recovering some of the grease. ^ I ^ 

Dryers are used for the final evaporation of water from 
tankage, and these may be described as horizontal, closed. 



78 



Filling room of the Arnold Reduction Plant of the Ameri- 
can Incinerating Co., Philadelphia. 

The upper ends are seen of two rows of cooking-tanks 
which are filled from above through traveling chutes shown 
in position over two rear tanks. The hinged covers of the 
tanks are plainly visible and the appliances for closing and 
securing them with rapidity. The pipes opening from the 
tops of the tanks carry off the fumes of cooking. 



View of the bottoms of cooking tanks shown on page 79. 

The contents of these tanks after cooking are dropped 
through large gate-valves into the slop-tank which appears 
below. The use of the slop-tank permits the rapid discharge 
of the cooking-tank without danger of splashing the floor or 
allowing odors to escape. Elevators carry the cooked tank- 
age from the slop-tank to the presses on the upper floor. 



82 



Pressroom of the Arnold plant in Philadelphia. 

Tankage is placed upon crates, in thin layers surrounded 
by gunny-sacking, and when numerous crates have been 
placed in position, pressure is applied by forcing down the 
upper frame by means of the four screws on each. The total 
pressure is about 240 tons on each press. 



84 

steam-jacketed cylinders, within which revolving arms keep 
the garbage continuously stirred, so that the heat derived 
from the cylinder shell is equally distributed and the contents 
uniformly dried, being at the same time partly triturated. 
Dryers in common use are generally capable of a charge of 
two or three tons. The sticky contents have a continuous 
tendency to dry in a layer upon the inside of the cylinder, 
and after long exposure to this heated surface become partly 
carbonized, and give to grease extracted later a very dark 
color. 




DRYER. 

The water vapor sent out from these dryers carries with 
it large quantities of offensive fumes, to prevent the escape 
of which is the aim of all such factories. Some of these 
fumes are condensible by water ; some can be decomposed by 
ordinary heat ; some can be destroyed only by combustion at 
high temperatures. Attached to the dryers, therefore, are 
usually found pipes and means of forcing these fumes suc- 
cessively through cold water spray, heated retorts, and the 
hottest fire of the furnace. The amount of gas v/hich survives 
these three ordeals is too small to be noxious or worth con- 
sidering. 



85 

The solid matter which finally comes from the dryers is 
already partially ground, and is therefore run through a 
screening apparatus which sifts the fine material from the 
coarse and from the remaining rubbish, sending the fine on 
its way to the store-room and passing the coarse to a disinte- 
grator or mill by which it is ground to proper size. 




DISINTEGRATOR. 

In factories where grease is extracted with great thorough- 
ness, benzine or naphtha is used as a solvent for extracting 
purposes. Then, of course, there must be storage tanks for 
the naphtha, which are simply large steel cylindrical reser- 
voirs, made with special care, fitted with special pipes and 
special valves, and generally kept in an adjoining building to 
prevent any danger from the heating or lighting of the factory 
itself. 

The extraction of grease by naphtha is always conducted 
in what are known as extracting tanks, which are much like 
cooking tanks, except that the pipe connections, valves and 
openings at top and bottom are made with special care to pre- 
vent any possible leaks. 



86 



Fume Condenser of the Arnold plant. 

Vapor comes down tlie larger of each pair of pipes shown 
and at the junction of the pipes meets a spray of water from 
the smaller pipe, and is thereby condensed. Vacuum gauges 
show the degree of exhaustion maintained in each pipe below 
the junction. 



88 



An opiniou is gaming ground that these plants should be 
so constructed as to receive at once into the cooking tank 
everything that comes in the garbage cart, and avoid the neces- 
sity of separating rubbish before the mass has been treated 
with steam or with steam and naphtha. This necessitates 
sometimes an uneconomical arrangement of machinery, but 
the companies themselves are the leaders in the movement. 

There has been objection, also, to the dark and sometimes 
odorous drainage water, cooked and uncooked, which has 




CONVEYOR. 

been allowed to run to the sewer ; and of late years it has 
been insisted that all effluent should be purified (preferably 
distilled) before being discharged. The operation is ex- 
pensive, and is held by some to be unnecessary since much 
worse matter goes to the sewer, but the amount of this water 
is considerable and the precaution is assuredly in behalf of 
ceueral cleanliness. 



89 



THE NAPHTHA METHOD. 

Three companies in this country use tlie naplitlia method, 
of whom two invited an examination of their factories and 
processes by this Department during the past summer. Of 
these, one, the Merz Com^^any, extracts the water before 
extracting the grease, while the second, the Sanative Refuse 
Company, of New York, reverses the process, first extracting 
the grease and drying the residuum later. 

In the Merz plants in Buffalo, St. Louis, etc., as fast as the 
material arrives it is culled of its rubbish which is cleaned 
by steam in special closed tanks, while the garbage passes at 
once into steam-jacketed drying cylinders, within which re- 
volving arms keep the contents continuously stirred, so that in 
a few hours each dryer turns out its load of garbage dried and 
partially ground and ready to be conveyed to the grease- 
extracting tanks. 

These, in turn, are large, upright steel cylinders which as 
soon as filled are hermetically closed, after which benzine is 
admitted through special pipes. Upon being heated by 
steam the benzine permeates the dried material, dissolves the 
grease, and afterward, upon cooling, drains to the bottom 
carrying the grease with it. The solution is thence drawn off 
to the grease tank, the benzine being distilled and recovered 
in transit. 

While this is going on, the extracting tank is opened, the 
dried residue is taken out and passed through screens which 
separate any rags and pieces of rubbish which may have been 
missed before, and leave the fine material ready for sale to the 
fertilizer manufacturer. 

In this manner all the merchantable parts of garbage are 
recovered except the little which gets inextricably mixed 
with the rubbish and is lost. This was the first system for 
the utilization of garbage introduced into the country on a 
large scale, and from it the other benzine processes have 
been developed. 



90 

Eeference to Table No. I., page 102, will show numerical 
results given by this process, working on Buffalo garbage of 
the month of June. 

In the second system mentioned, that of the Sanative Ref- 
use Company of New York, the garbage upon receipt is at 
once dumped into cooking tanks, which are then tightly 
closed, benzine being admitted and steam being applied to 
heat the contents. 

The theory of this company, in thus applying benzine or 
naphtha as the first operation, is that, since naphtha has a 
decided value as a deodorant and disinfectant, only good can 
result from its early application for the purpose of extracting 
the grease ; and that, in the second place, the cooked tankage 
will be easier to dry if its grease has been previously ex- 
tracted. 

When, as said above, steam has been applied to the tanks 
for a short time, the grease is dissolved by the naphtha, the 
solution is drained off and separated as before described. At 
the same time, also, about half the water in the garbage, which 
has already been cooked during the process, has drained out 
and is run off through a filter to the sewer ; so that the resid- 
uum, when taken from the tank is rapidly converted into 
dried tankage. 

Some of the very apparent advantages of this method are 
offset by the loss of a somewhat greater amount of naphtha 
than by the previous system. 

It is well known that not only does the presence of grease 
in any material make it more easily inflammable, but that the 
presence of any of the oxygen-absorbing oils tends to spon- 
taneous combustion. From this arises the danger in any 
garbage process which does not make a thorough extraction 
of the grease from this mass of finely-divided fibrous mate- 
rial ; and in the thoroughness with which the naphtha pro- 
cess does extract the grease lies its chief value as a fire pre- 
ventive, more than equaling the danger from explosion of 
naphtha in any but inexperienced hands. 



91 

The successive steps of this process are shown in Table 
II., page 103, and the numerical results obtained from Sep- 
tember garbage from a small section of New York City. 

THE HECHANICAL METHOD. 

The second method of extracting grease has been intro- 
duced to save the time and the naphtha lost by the first 
method. In this the garbage is first cooked in steam and 
while still hot, subjected to great mechanical pressure 
that the water and grease maybe thus forced out. The grease 
is afterward separated from the water, while the solid re- 
siduum is easily dried. The process is rapid and, if the 
grease could be extracted by mechanical pressure as thor- 
oughly as by a solvent, would be a great gain. 

Of this class is the Preston process, controlled by the 
Merz Company, and examined by the Department at the plant 
in Greenpoint, L. I. Here no garbage water, cooked or un- 
cooked, is allowed to run to the sewer, but all is evaporated 
and sent out as steam or as distilled water. None of the fine 
solid matter or thick liquids escape, but all are collected and 
combined with the tankage. 

Table No. III., page 104, illustrates the operations of the 
Preston process as applied to New York and Brooklyn garb- 
age of July, 1895. 

Another method embodying the same principles is that 
used by the Bridgeport Utilization Company working under 
the Holthaus patents. The main differences are that the 
cooking tank and press are combined in one machine and 
the moisture driven off in a specially constructed dryer and 
und'er a vacuum. Here the amount of manual labor is re- 
duced but the first cost of machinery is increased. All 
foul liquids are purified as in the Preston process. V 

Table lY. gives details. 

Of this class, too, is the process of the American Inciner- 
ating Company, of Philadelphia. Mechanical appliances of 
the most modern design render manual labor almost uaneces- 



92 



The discharging door of one of the dryers shown on page 
75. The pile of material dropped from the dryer is fed 
automatically into a conveyor which carries it to an elevator, 
by which in turn it is taken to the storage room. The form 
of conveyor in common use is illustrated on page 88. The 
elevator consists always of a series of buckets secured to a 
belt or chain. 



94 

sary, and the process is rapid, simple and inexpensive. In 
this factory, however, the surplus water of the cooked garb- 
age is not evaporated, but is run direct to the sewer, and 
more or less of the finely-divided matter is carried off by the 
effluent water, 

COMPLETE FERTILIZER METHOD. 

A third class of processes goes further than any of the pre- 
ceding, in that it proposes to continue in its factories the 
manufacture of the dry matter into a complete fertilizer ready 
for the farmer's use. To this class belong the Pierce process 
owned by the Sanative Refuse Company of New York, and 
the process of the American Reduction Company. 

The latter company adds a few hundred pounds of sulphu- 
ric acid to each tank-load of garbage before cooking ; and 
after cooking, but before drying, adds more sulphuric acid and 
appropriate amounts of phosphoric acid and potash. The aim 
of these additions is to produce a fertilizing material in which 
the proportions of ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash shall 
be such as agricultural experience has shown to be best 
suited to ordinary crops, and it is, of course, cheaper to do 
the mixing in the garbage factory than to ship the tankage 
away and have it mixed elsewhere. 

The Pierce process has the same ultimate end in view, but, 
in order to avoid the action of sulpharic acid upon iron tanks 
and pipes, it reserves its mixing until after the cooking, grease 
extraction, etc., have been completed. 

In Table V. some numerical results are omitted because 
the company does not wish the proportions of its mixture 
made public. C. H. K. 



95 



Crematories. 



New York is favored by a location which has long per- 
mitted the daily disposal of its wastes at sea, and it was not 
formerly deemed necessary seriously to consider any other 
method. 

Inland cities, however, even of small size, have been 
obliged to seek for some method of disposition within their 
own borders which would relieve them from the injunctions 
of their neighbors and from danger to the health of their own 
communities. 

A belief, both well founded and popular, that everything 
may be purified by fire early led to attempts to burn the ref- 
use. Every housekeeper knows that small amounts of refuse 
may be quickly disposed of by a good fire, and it is only when 
the endeavor is made to dispose of a large amount of refuse 
by a poor fire that trouble begins. In all cases freedom from 
offensive odors is gained only at the expense of fuel. 

An ordinary garbage furnace is a long brick structure with 
provision at top for dumping in whole cartloads of rubbish, 
and provision inside for maintaining a fire, the heated 
gases from which play upon and consume the rubbish. 
Since many noxious fumes are driven off during this process 
some crematories maintain a second fire near the entrance 
to the chimney or smokestack, through which all fumes are 
forced to pass and by which they are largely decomposed and 
destroyed. Others aim to accomplish the same object by 
compelling the vapors to pass through long channels of 
heated brick-work, and in all crematories the object sought 
is the complete decomposition and destruction of vapors within 
the furnace itself. 

The fuel varies with the locality ; wood, coal, oil, or gas 
being used. Since the destruction of fumes depends mainly 



96 

upon tlie temperature, that fuel is best which will produce 
the greatest heat ; and in all cases, to insure immunity from 
offense, sufficient fuel must be burned to make the operation 
one of combustion, and not mere evaporation or distillation. 
The cost of burning a city's waste depends not more upon 
the cost of fuel than upon the character of the waste. In 
the cities of the South and West where numerous crematories 
are in use, the term garbage is generally understood to in- 
clude not merely the refuse from kitchens and markets, which 
is about three-quarters water, but also all the easily combus- 
tible refuse, such as paper, excelsior, shop sweepings, etc., etc., 
which serves both as fuel and to separate the portions of wet 
garbage and allow a more rapid and thorough penetration by 
the heated gases. Under such conditions cremation is 
neither difficult nor costly ; but when we attempt the com- 
bustion of true kitchen and market refuse — principally wet 
vegetable parings and scraps — a different problem is before us. 
The experience of Lowell, Mass. ; Wilmington, Del.; Rich- 
mond, Va. ; Allegheny, Pa., and other places, shows that it 
can be accomplished with some satisfaction to the citizen, at 
an expense varying according to location and the fuel in use ; 
and that in towns and the smaller cities it is the best and 
safest method of providing against numerous hygienic 
perils. C. H. K. 



97 



General Observations. 

The subject of the final disposition of garbage is a mu- 
nicipal question, for with the single family or the small com- 
munity all table and kitchen waste is valuable and eagerly 
sought as food for domestic animals. When fresh and wdiole- 
some, this is its proper and natural destination. It is only 
when, in larger communities, public health requires the ban- 
ishment of the omnivorous hog that the disposition of 
putrescible waste becomes a question. 

The early history of the subject, in all but seaport towns, 
is practically the same. The method of disj)osition adopted 
must be satisfactory at once to the community and to its 
neighbors. In seaport towns it has usually been cheapest 
and easiest to tow and dump the mixed wastes so far from 
shore as to be practically unobjectionable. 

Inland towns, however, have commonly endeavored to sell 
their edible waste, even if not very fresh, to persons who 
hauled it away for use as food in large piggeries. Many, too, 
even within recent years, have used it in a partially decom- 
posed condition as food for milch cows. But the consumers 
of the milk and the consumers of the pork have gradually 
risen in protest, and the guardians of health have urged many 
reasons why the practice should be abolished. The revenue 
derived from it and the difficulty of finding a better method 
have been serious obstacles to change ; but the practice has 
generally given way to the compost heap, which in turn has 
usually died an early death from the vigorous objections of 
its neighbors. 

A mechanical solution of the question then appeared the 
most promising. The first impulse naturally was to destroy an 
article which had given so much trouble ; the second impulse 
was to save a substance which w^as known to be valuable. 



98 

The development of these two ideas has led to the invention 
of crematories and utilization methods. 

All new processes are liable to failure from inexperience 
and from the natural timidity of capital. Early attempts to 
destroy and to save this kind of city waste were defective in 
both cases, because no one quite knew what was needed and 
every one hesitated to invest money which might be lost. 
The history of the past few years is therefore strewn with 
wrecks of laudable attempts to solve the problem. 

The conditions of permanency and successful operation 
differ so much in different cities that an intimate and detailed 
knowledge of individual cases is necessary to an intelligent 
judgment of the inherent value of any particular process. In 
some places the relatively dry character of the waste and the 
mildness of the winter climate have permitted the easy and 
continued operation of crematories, which, when called upon 
to burn wetter material, to maintain hotter fires and to 
withstand the rigors of a northern winter, have not sustained 
their reputation. In other places the location of a crematory 
or of a reduction plant has been so unwisely chosen, that 
slight odors or even the daily sight of a line of garbage carts 
has been enough to cause great complaint. Among the early 
reduction plants a fruitful source of trouble and failure was 
the tendency of enthusiasts to over-estimate the amount and 
value of grease and tankage to be recovered and thus to enter 
into unprofitable contracts, which both disheartened stock- 
holders and prevented improvements suggested by experience. 
In many places, too, the municipal authorities have been so 
divided in opinion that the small majority by which a system 
has been introduced has not been able to withstand the 
trifling criticisms which would have passed unnoticed had the 
company been longer in operation or backed by a stronger 
popular desire for its success. 

Only careful examination by experienced judges and ex- 
tended over a reasonable time can give any accurate idea of 
the accomplishment or possibilities of such a process. Many 



99 

of the difficulties to be overcome have now been learned by 
experience, and have been briefly discussed above. They are 
primarily hygienic, secondarily economic and all are near- 
ing solution. 

In the case of the smaller cities whose outskirts are easily 
reached, and in many of which combustible waste is mixed 
with kitchen refuse, crematories have been established and 
are in use with results more or less acceptable. The later 
installations, with their improved methods, are, of course, 
better than earlier ones. 

In Wilmington, Del., the Brown Crematory has been used ; 
in New Brighton, Staten Island, Terre Haute, Ind., and 
Gainesville, Tex., the Brownlee furnace ; in Allegheny, Pa., 
the Rider ; in Camden, N. J., McKeesport, Pa., Atlanta, Ga., 
Fort Wayne, Ind., and Salt Lake City, the Dixon ; in Lowell, 
Mass., Coney Island, N, Y., Eichmond, Va., Savannah, Ga., 
and in numerous places, principally in the South and West, 
the Engle ; in Atlantic City, N. J., Philadelphia, Muncie, Ind., 
etc., the Smith-Siemens ; in Scranton, Pa., the Yivarttas. 
Many other towns have purchased and operated other crema- 
tories with varying success. 

Among the larger cities, Buffalo, N. Y., with a population 
of about 300,000, pays $35,000 per year to the Merz Company 
to receive and dispose of its garbage by a reduction system ; 
Detroit, Mich., with 250,000 population, pays annually $63,000 
for collection and disposal by the same process ; Milwaukee, 
Wis., with 250,000 people, pays $24,000 for disposal by the 
Merz Company ; and in St. Louis the Merz Company receives 
and reduces all garbage and offal at $1.80 per ton. 

Cincinnati, with 350,000 population and payment on a slid- 
ing scale averaging about $22,000 per year, and New Orleans, 
250,000 population, send their garbage to plants of the 
Simonin utilization system. In this process garbage is spread 
upon crates and, within closed iron cylinders subjected to the 
action of naphtha and steam heat until the grease and water 




100 
after which the dry matter may be culled 

In Philadelphia, where " slop " is collected and disposed 
of by contract, many methods have been in successive or con- 
temporaneous use. At present, all the '' slop " which is 
treated within the city limits goes either to one of the two 
Smith crematories or to the large reduction plant of the 
Arnold sj'stem. 

Chicago, too, has tried nearly every known method, and is 
still experimenting — just now with crematories. 

Boston, which has always derived a revenue from the sale 
of " swill " to neighboring feeders and towed the balance of 
its waste to sea, made a contract some two years ago with a 
local company operating the Arnold process ; but the plant 
was closed after a few months' operation, and now the city 
has temporarily returned to its ancient method. 

Washington, D. C, has had a somewhat similar experi- 
ence, except that the Arnold plant was destroyed by fire and, 
owing to the uncertain condition of the contract then in force, 
it was not rebuilt. The Health Officer of the city has lately 
made an extended visit to plants in operation in other 
cities. This is one of the places where something mifst be 
done, and it is said that recent contracts have been made for 
the erection of two crematories, one of which is already com- 
pleted. 

Pittsburgh operated for years an overworked and unsatis- 
factory crematory, and the present contractor has lately built 
a reduction plant in which it is proposed to manufacture the 
garbage dry matter into a complete fertilizer. The method in 
use is that of the Consolidated American Reduction Company. 

Cleveland, hampered by poverty, has done little yet, but 
hopes to put a redaction plant into operation in the near 
future. 

New York and Brooklyn are pressed by necessity to an 

early decision. 

C. H. K. 



101 



The following tables are made public by permission of the 
companies concerned. They illustrate the successive steps 
of each process as well as a portion of the observations made 
by the Department examiners. Some details of operation 
and other items are omitted by request. 



10-2 



Table I. 



METHOD NO. 1 OF MEBZ UNIVERSAL EXTB ACTOR AND CON- 
STRUCTION COMPANY. 

"Works at Buffalo, N. Y. — Garbage of June, 1895. 

Process — Garbage dried in revolving-reel cylinders, then grease extracted 
vrith naphtha, and remainder re-dried. 



Garbage Received 

Water drained to sewer before treatment, . . . 
Rubbish culled before treatment and steamed 

Garbage put into dryers , 

"Water evaporated by dryers 

Dried remainder treated for grease 

Grease extracted 

Remaining tankage 

Screenings 

Salable tankage 



Pounds. 


PekCbnt 


2,616,850 


100.0 


361,685 


10.0 


39,253 


1.5 


2,315,912 


88.5 


1,568,582 


59.9 


747,330 


28.6 


75,703 


2.9 


671,627 


25.7 


158,277 


6.0 


513,350 


19.7 



Summary or Garbage Ingredients. 



"Water drained to sewer before treatment . . . 

' ' evaporated by dryers 

Rubbish culled before treatment and steamed 

Rubbish culled after treatment 

Grease from extractor 

Tankage salable 



Pounds. 



261,685 

1,568,582 

39,253 

158,277 

75,703 

513,350 



Per Cent. 



10.0 

59.9 

1.5 

6.0 

2.9 

19.7 



Total 
Per Cent 



69.9 

"i'.h 

2.9 
19.7 



Analysis of Tankage. 

Moisture at 100° C == 11 .70^ 

Nitrogen = 2. 63 = Ammonia 3. 20j^ 

Phosphoricacid=1.68 =B. P. L 3.66^ 

Potash = 1.20,^ 

Naphtha loss per ton of garbage received. . = 1 gallon. 

Water used per ton of garbage received = 3,000 gallons. 

Coal used per ton of garbage received = 920 pounds. 



103 



Table II. 

METHOD NO. 1 OF SANATIVE REFUSE COMPANY (PIEBCE). 

Plant in New Yokk City — Garbage of September. 

Process — Garbage cooked in naphtha and steam for disinfection and grease 
extraction. Tankage then dried. 



Garbage received 

Rubbish culled before treatment and steamed 

Garbage treated with naphtha and steam 

Treated water drained from extracting tank. 

Grease extracted 

Cooked garbage taken from extracting tank . 

Material added 

Total wet material put into dryer 

Water evaporated by dryer 

Tankage taken from dryer 

Screenings 

Salable tankage 



Pounds. 


Percent. 


45,065 


100.0 


1,535 


3.4 


43,530 


96.6 


10,447 


23.2 


1,077 


2.4 


32,006 


71.0 


1,365 


3.0 


33,371 


74.0 


19,629 


43.5 


13,742 


30.5 


142 


0.8 


13,600 


30.2 



Summary of Garbage Ingredients. 


Pounds. 


Percent. 


Total 
Per Cent. 


Water drained and filtered after treatment 

' ' evaporated by dryer .'. 

Rubbish culled before treatment and steamed. . . 
" culled after treatment 


10,447 

19,109 

1,535 

142 

1,077 
13,755 


23.2 

42.4 

3.4 

0.3 

2.4 

28.3 


"65*6 
3.7 


Grease from extractor 


2.4 


Tankage, less dry material added 


28.3 







Analysis of TanTcage. 

Ammonia = 3 . 40^ 

Phosphoric acid (available) ^ 3 . 10^ 

Potash = .70^ 

Naphtha loss per ton of garbage received . . = 4 gallons. 

Water used per ton of garbage received := 3,000 gallons. 

Coal used per ton of garbage received = 900 pounds. 



104 



Table III. 

METHOD NO. 2 OF MERZ UNIVERSAL EXTBAGTOB AND CON- 
8TBUGTI0N COMPANY (PRESTON). 

Works in Greenpoint, L. I.— New York and Brooklyn Garbage 

OF July. 

Process — Garbage cooked in steam, then pressed, and dried in revolving- 
reel cylinders. Grease collected from tank and press water. All garbage 
water evaporated. 



Garbage received (New York, 16,471 lbs. ; Brook- 
lyn, 10,560 lbs.) 

Garbage treated in extracting tank 

Grease from " " 

Garbage water from extracting tank, later 
put through sj^ecial evaporator 

Condensed steam from extracting tank, 
later put through special evaporator .... 

Cooked garbage from extracting tank 

Rubbish culled after cooking, before press- 
ing 

Cooked garbage put into press 

Grease taken from press 

Garbage water from press, later put through 
special evaporator 

Garbage taken from press to dryer 

i Tank and pre«-s water put through evap- 

•< orator 

( Water evaporated therefrom 

Remaining thick liquor added to dryer 
charge 

Total charge of dryers 

Water evaporated from dryers ........ 

Tankage taken from dryers 

Screenings 

Salable tankage 



New Yokk 
Per Cent. 



100.0 



100.0 
2.4 

44.4 

26.5 
53.2 

8.2 

45.0 

1.5 

11.6 
31.9 

82.5 
77.3 

5.2 
37.1 
12.7 
24.4 

4.1 
20.3 



Bbookltn 
Per Cent. 



100.0 



100.0 
1.8 

46.7 

50.4 
51.5 

3.7 

47.8 
0.7 

22.1 
25.0 

119.2 
116.7 

2.5 

27.5 
9.4 

18.1 
8.1 

15.0 



Average 
Per Cent. 



100.0 



100.0 
2.3 

45.3 

35.8 
52.5 

6.4 

46.1 

1.2 

15.7 
29.3 



92.6 

4.3 
33.4 
11.4 
22.0 

3.7 
18.3 



105 

Table III — {Continued). 



Sttmmaet of Gabbagb Ingbedients. 



Water drained from extractor and 
evaporated by special evaporator. 

Water drained from press and evap- 
orated by special evaporator 

Water evaporated by dryers 

Rubbish culled after treatment. . . . 

Grease drained from extractor. . . . 
" " " press 

Tankage salable 



New YoRa 


Per Cent. 


41 





9 


8 


12 


7 


12 


3 


2.4 1 


1 


5 


20 


3 



Brooklyn 

Per Cent. 



45.9 

20.4 
9.4 
6.8 
1.8 
0.7 

15.0 



Average 
Per Cent. 



42.9 

13.9 
11.4 
10.1 
2.2 
1.2 
18.3 



Total 
Average 
Percent. 



68.3 
10.1 

3^4 

18.3 



Water used per ton of garbage received . 
Coal used per ton of garbage received . . . 



= 2,000 gallons (est.) 
= 500 pounds. 



106 



Table IV. 

METHOD OF BRIBQEPOBT UlILIZATION COMPANY {HOLTHAUS). 

WOEKS IN BeIDGEPOKT — GARBAGE OF JANUARY, 1896. 

Process — Garbage cooked in steam, liquid contents extracted by mechani- 
cal pressure (after which the grease is separated from the water), and the re- 
siduum dried for a fertilizer base. 



Garbage received . 



Eubbish culled before treatment. . 

Garbage treated 

Water added before cooking (est.). 

Grease extracted 

TanMge taken from dryer 

Screenings 

Salable tankage 



Pounds. 



334,002 



984 

333,018 

98,600 

6,068 

49,515 

705 

48,810 



Pek Cbnt. 



100.0 



.3 
99.7 



1.8 

14.8 

.3 

14.6 



Stjmmakt of Garbage Ingredients. 


Pounds. 


Percent 


Water evaporated 


277,435 

984 

705 

6,068 

48,810 


83.1 


Rubbish culled before treatment 


.3 


" " after " 

Grease from extractor 


.2 

1.8 


Tankage 


14.6 







Total 
Percent. 



83.1 

"'".5 

1.8 
14.6 



Note — As the above examination was made during the preparation of this 
report, there was no opportunity to prepare an analysis before going to press. 



107 



Table V. 

METHOD NO. 2 OF SANATIVE REFUSE COMPANY (PIERCE). 
Plant in New York City — Garbage of September. 

Process — Garbage cooked in naphtha and steam for grease extraction, then 
tankage mixed with sulphuric acid, concentrated phosphates and potash, and 
dried to make complete fertilizer. 



Oarhage receiwd. 



Rubbish culled before treatment and steamed 

Garbage treated with naphtha and steam 

Water filtered and drained to sewer from extractor. 

G rease extracted 

Cooked garbage taken from extractor 

Sulphuric acid added . . 

Phosphate added 

Potash added 

Total wet material put into dr^'er 

Water evaporated by dryer 

Fertilizer taken from dryer 

Screenings 

Salable complete fertilizer 

Garbage tankage = complete fertilizer less dry chemi- 
cals 



Pounds. 



156,440 



7,547 

148,893 

46,157 

3,382 
100,468 



135,916 

56,271 

79,645 

400 

79,245 

47,326 



Per Cent. 



100.0 



4.8 
95.2 
29.5 

1.5 

64.2 



36.0 
50.9 

0.2 
50.7 

30.2 



Summary of Garbage Ingredients. 



Water drained and filtered from extractor. . . . 

" evaporatd by dryer 

Rubbish culled b'efqre treatment and steamed. 

" after treatment 

Grease from extraetor 

Tankage from garbage only 

Dry chemicals added 

Salable complete -fertilizer 



Pounds. 



46,157 
52,843 

7,547 
400 

2,382 
47,226 
33,019 
79,245 



Percent. 



29.5 

33.8 

4.8 

0.2 

1.5 

30.2 

20.5 

50.7 



Total 
Per Cent 



63.3 



5.0 

1.5 

30.2 



Analysis of Fertilizer. 
Ammonia 

Available phosphoric acid 

Potash 

Naphtha loss per ton of garbage received . 
Water used per ton of garbage received . . 
Coal used per ton of garbage received 



= 2.0% 

= ^.Q% 

= 2.0$^ 

= 4 gallons. 

= 3,000 gallons. 
= 550 pounds. 

C. H. 



K. 



108 



Some General Observations on Incineration or Crema- 
tion. 

It was not till the advance sheets of this general report 
were in the printer's hands that a sufficient number of fur- 
naces had been examined to make a satisfactory report on 
incineration. 

Previous to this and while investigations of utilization 
methods were in progress, all operators of well-known fur- 
naces were awarii that the Department stood ready to examine 
their processes, provided the operators would pay the expense 
of the examination as other plants were and had been doing. 

The Department took advantage of the proximity of two 
furnaces then in operation to inform itself as well as possible 
as to the methods of disposal by fire. Later, several repre- 
sentatives of crematories came forward and invited investiga- 
tion, and examinations of their plants were made. A good 
opportunity was afforded for studying the character and the 
disposal of organic refuse at different seasons of the year, and 
under various conditions, because our examinations of the 
different plants were carried on during nearly every month. 

Beyond the fact that cremation as now operated in this 
country turns out a small percentage of salable ashes (good 
as a fertilizer), the two methods under consideration in this 
report are in no manner related. 

Reduction or utilization is in all cases carried on by pri- 
vate enterprise for financial returns, while crematories on the 
other hand are iu nearly every instance owned aud operated 
by cities or towns, with a view of getting rid of something 
which as a nuisance must be disposed of. 

The general results of incineration as shown in the 
residuum are not always satisfactory. The ashes in all cases 
contain more or less vegetable matter that' is but partly car- 
bonized, and no refuse heap was examined in which could 
not be found some small pieces of paper that were not charred. 

Whether or not the quantity of unconsumed organic 



109 

matter is sufficient to make the bulk of the ashes obnoxious 
would have to be determined by still further investigation. 
It must always be borne in mind, however, that by far the 
greater part of all refuse of whatever description that is 
brought to the furnace is wholly and effectually destroyed or 
rendered harmless. 

The furnaces visited are as follows : 

The " Brownlee," at New Brighton, Staten Island. 
The " Brown," at Wilmington, Delaware. 
The " Smith," at Philadelphia, Pa. 
The "Vivarttas," at Scranton, Pa. 
The " McKay," at Yonkers, N. Y. 

Crematories can be operated by a few hands and skilled 
labor is generally unnecessary. Unfortunately, however, for 
the inventors and builders of furnaces, the labor employed by 
the cities operating them is not always reliable, and the fur- 
nace has not the thorough care that it would have in the hands 
of people more deeply interested in the success of the plant. 
For the same reasons, very many points of minor importance 
are overlooked and the repair of the furnace is not as care- 
fully attended to as it should be. As the life of a plant de- 
pends largely on the care and attention given to these minor 
points, it will be seen that municipal labor, which is not 
usually selected for its good quality, is not advantageous to 
the builders of the plants. Repairs form, however, but a 
small part of the general running expenses. The two points 
of greater consideration are fuel and labor. 

The defects are generally the same in nearly all plants of 
this character. The first one noticed is, that more or less of 
the garbage spills from the carts, and, falling on the heated 
edges of the charging holes, is burned in the open air and 
creates more or less nuisance in the immediate vicinity. 
Again, the free water does not in all cases find its way into 
the fire, which is advantageous as far as cheap incinera- 
tion is concerned but does not improve the surrounding 



110 

atmosphere. In furnaces where it is dumped directly upon 
the fires, it retards incineration and in some instances effect- 
ually prevents it, especially in the material lying at the bot- 
tom of the charge. Where reverberatory furnaces are in use, 
this last remark does not hold good. Some of these allow 
for the settlement of the water in a pan, or some similar con- 
trivance, underlying the return flame. It is necessary in this 
case to have a fire near the base of the stack thoroughly to 
consume or dissociate the vapors from the evaporating pan. 
Smoke from the stacks of furnaces is not excessive in quan- 
tity, nor particularly offensive in the vicinity of the plant. It 
may, however, be brought to the ground, especially on damp 
days, at a comparatively short distance from the stack, and 
in this case would be disagreeable. A careful inspection of 
this smoke will show constant changes both in color and vol- 
ume, and these changes will be found to coincide with the 
times of the opening of the charging holes and the dumping 
of fresh refuse on the fires. 

The average height of the stacks is about 65 feet. 

The loads of refuse are, in many cases, dumped directly 
through the charging holes from the carts, and this prevents 
good results for two reasons : 

First — A charge of 1,500 to 2,000 pounds dropped 5 or 10 
feet, packs the material and makes it more difiicult for the 
flame to penetrate the mass. 

Second — The quantity in each new cartload is suflicient to 
smother and put out some of the garbage which is already 
burning. The partly-burned stuff is, however, in good con- 
dition to receive and help dispose of a portion of the moisture 
in the fresh charge. 

Garbage is a poor conductor of heat, and as it packs closely 
the flame has no opportunity to work through interstices. 

The difiiculty of consuming non-conducting wet material, 
especially when that material is not porous, is well known. 
During the winter months, however, when the percentage of 



Ill 

grease is double or triple that of the summer months, there 
is not so much fuel necessary per ton of garbage consumed. 

The fuels used are various, and an oil or gas burning fur- 
nace would seem to be preferable, as the flame is more easily 
controlled than is that of a coal burner. It seems to be a 
difficult matter to keep the various doors and sight-holes 
tight, and the consequent and constant inrush of cold air is 
detrimental. 

It is well known that under favorable conditions, 
including the best attainable coal, one pound of fuel will 
evaporate eleven pounds of water, but when the adverse con- 
ditions under which the water must be evaporated from 
garbage are considered, it seems difficult to believe that so 
good results can be obtained. The reports of the efficiency 
of various well-known furnaces bear out this reasoning. 

The amount of fuel necessary to consume a ton of garbage 
varies so much in different furnaces, even when working on 
similar kinds of material, that it may be well to state the 
problem that confronts the crematory man. 

Considering only the kind of garbage discussed in this 
report, and accepting the statement of average composition 
given on page 76, it is evident that water to the amount of 70 
per cent, of the total weight must be driven off before the 
balance can be burned, and that there remains nearly 23 per 
cent, of the total weight in grease and other carbonaceous 
matter — highly combustible when dried. There is thus three 
times as much water as combustible, and the water must be 
driven off before the balance can be used as fuel; but there 
appears no good reason why the heat of this dried carbona- 
ceous matter should not be made available for driving out 
water from the next succeeding equal weight of garbage. 
Many experimental tests of the combustible value of vegetable 
fibre in like condition have shown that three pounds of water 
may be evaporated per pound of such fuel ; and it follows 
that with proper arrangements each pound of garbage may 



112 

dry the succeeding pound so that garbage may be made to 
burn itself. 

This does not take into account the necessity of high tem- 
perature at a later stage for the decomposition of noxious 
gases, but provides only for evaporation of the water and con- 
version of the combustible matter into a gas. The amount of 
fuel required later is small. 

It is important to guard against a fallacy common in 
the reasoning of many people, that the water itself may 
be made available as fuel by dissociating its vapor into 
hydrogen and oxygen which will again unite with them- 
selves or with something else, with the evolution of a vast 
amount of heat ; the heat produced by union being merely 
the equivalent of the heat absorbed in dissociation, no consti- 
tuent of garbage can be counted as fuel except such as will 
unite with atmospheric oxygen at attainable temperatures. 

The intense heat necessary for rapid and complete incin- 
eration, coupled with the facts that the fires are frequently 
allowed to go out, permitting the furnace to cool, and that the 
frequent opening of the receiving hatches and stoke doors 
results in partial and temporary cooling of different portions 
of the furnace, does not permit of the best results nor con- 
duce to permanency in the structure. 

Experience in burning solid fuels of various kinds long 
ago demonstrated that economy calls for a regular and uni- 
form supply of fuel and an equally regular and uniform sup- 
ply of air. If furnace doors are thrown open at intervals for 
the introduction of relatively large amounts of fuel, the tem- 
perature of the fire bed is suddenly lowered by the addition 
of this cold material ; the temperature of the furnace walls is 
quickly and harmfully reduced by draughts of cold air ; and, 
immediately upon closing the doors, large quantities of gas 
are forced from the fresh fuel and in the absence of a propor- 
tionally increased amount of air pass out unconsumed and 
produce smoke. The knowledge of this has led to the intro- 
duction of apparatus which brings the fuel to the fire in a 



113 

thin and steady stream, so that not only is the supply regular 
and the amount of necessary draught unvarying, but the fuel 
is gradually warmed in its slow approach and put into condi- 
tion for complete burning as it reaches the fire. 

This method of effecting a uniform rate of combustion is 
applicable to all solid fuels, including garbage, and is as con- 
ducive to economy in burning garbage as in burning coal. 

Furnaces can be cheaply built and easily operated, and 
repairs are relatively unimportant ; but automatic stokers of 
some kind will be found necessary before thorough and com- 
plete incineration is accomplished. The material that is 
dumped directly into the furnace is soon partially protected 
from the flame by a coating of its own ash, but as the ashes 
are light and fine, and the draughts strong, a part of 
them are carried up the stack to the outer air. To prevent 
the nuisance which might result, also to save the fine ash, 
several methods are pursued. The simplest, and therefore 
the one generally followed, is to enlarge the flue at some con- 
vienient point, thus forming a settling chamber or trap. 

Foreign matter, that keeps the charge separate, aids the 
combustion especially if it is itself combustible. Separation 
is, therefore, not so carefully considered when crematories are 
in use. Bottles, crockery, metals, etc., form a clinker which 
chokes the grates and makes additional attention necessary. 
The clinker when ground is used for mortars and cements. 

The quantity of ash is small and can be easily cared for. 

Crematories have been found located closer to the business 
and residence centers than reduction plants, but as far as 
nuisances are concerned, there is, in the opinion of the De- 
partment Inspectors, little or no choice, as either method, 
properly conducted, would give far less reason for complaint 
than many established concerns operating in and about the 
same localities, and in many cases in tl)e heart of populous 

districts. 

M. C. 



114 

How Waste May Be Utilized. 

During this examination, the uses to which waste may be 
applied have been found to be numerous and a partial 
enumeration of those brought before the Department may 
be of interest : 
Recovery of grease and fertilizer filler. 

" " " manufacture of complete fertilizer. 

Manufacture of fertilizer by means of compost heaps. 
Incineration, including the sale of the ashes for fertilizing. 

'• and recovery by distillation of merchantable 

chemicals. 
" and manufacture of ornamental tiling. 

" and utilization of waste heat from furnace for 

power. 
Utilization of waste from furnaces for road metal and ce- 
ments and mortars. 
" of raw swill for feed or fertilization. 
" of metal scrap for sash weights. 
Recovery of solder from tins. 
Carbonization and manufacture of fuel. 
Manufacture of paper from waste. 

" " building material, tiles and artificial stone, 

from ashes, etc. 
Separation and recovery of bottles, rags, bones, shoes, rubber 

scrap, etc. 
Production of lime from oyster and clam shells, etc. 

M. C. 



APPENDIX. 



Investigations resulting in the papers 
which follow were continued during the 
time necessary to prepare and advertise 
the various forms of contracts for final 
disposition. A brief history of these con- 
tracts is appended. 



117 



Bottles from the Dumps. 



Old bottles are handled in every junk-shop, besides forming the sole stock 
in trade of a considerable number of dealers, large and small. But although 
they can be used over and over again, and are always exchangeable for cash, 
bottles are to be found in every load of garbage that reaches the dumps, and 
the scow-trimmers regard them as a certain source of income, not overlooking 
the smallest one that comes their way. In estimating the extent of the 
" dump bottle ' trade, account must be taken of " registered " goods — bottles 
in which are blown the proprietors' names, and which, under the laws of 
New York and some other States, cannot be bought or sold by any one else 
without incurring a heavy penalty. Such bottles are chiefly those used for 
beer, soda and carbonated waters, including all siphon bottles. How these 
are returned to their owners will be described further on. 

All other bottles are collected at the dumps, generally in old sugar-barrels, 
and sold to small bottle-dealers near by. In the case of each dump visited the 
" mixed bottles " are sold to a different dealer, whose wagon visits the dump 
at stated intervals, carrying the bottles away to his shop, where they are cleaned 
and assorted, and kept for sale again. Each of several buyers of bottles from 
the dumps said to me that there was a limit to the amount of such stock that 
they could handle at a protit, their principal trade being in junk bottles— ^■. e., 
those gathered from houses by push-cart men. They would, not find it pay 
them to drive a considerable distance for dump bottles. One such dealer esti- 
mated the average number of barrels of bottles gathered in a week from the 
various dumps as follows : 



Dumps. 



"West Side — Canal street 

Twelfth street 

Nineteenth street 

Thirtieth street 

Forty-seventh street 

One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street 
East Side — Rutgers street 

Rivington street 

Seventeenth street 



Baekels. 



20 
20 
30 
30 
50 
40 
20 
20 
20 



118 

Dumps. 

East Side — Thirty-eighth street 

Forty-sixth street 

Seventy-third street 

Eightieth street 

One Hundred and Tenth street. 

Lincoln avenue 

Total 



Bakrels. 

40 
40 
40 
40 
40 
30 



480 



The collections may vary from week to week, but the amounts removed 
are more nearly uniform, for the reason that the movement is measured by 
wagon-loads of barrels. On adding up his figures, the dealer quoted above 
said that a safe estimate would be 500 barrels a week, at SI. 50 per barrel, 
which would aggregate 26,000 barrels a year, worth to the scow-trimmers 
$39,000. The yield of bottles varies with the seasons. There is particularly 
a falling-off in the number of bottles reaching the dumps from certain resi- 
dence districts in summer, on account of the absence of a great many families. 

Another dealer, in a different part of the city, without knowing of the 
preceding estimate, expressed the opinion that the yield of mixed bottles from 
the dumps would average 500 barrels per week, at $1.50 per barrel. When 
asked about the probable collections of bottles from ash-cans or garbage-bar- 
rels on the sidewalks, he said he thought that not more than $50 or $60 per 
week was paid throughout the city for such bottles, since the regular bottle 
trade would not buy them. By the way, after calling at many bottle-stores, 
large and small, I have not found any admission that bottles from refuse bar- 
rels were handled, except at the stores having regular arrangements with the 
lessees of the dumps. 

A third estimate, made for me by a former contractor for some of the 
dumps, and going into details, differs very slightly from that printed in the 
foregoing table, and gives a weekly total of 490 barrels of bottles per week. 

In the yard attached to one bottle-shop were to be found empty whiskey 
and wine bottles, medicine and perfume bottles of every size and shape, nurs- 
ing bottles, oil and catsup bottles, fruit-jars, etc., all collected from the 
dumps — in separate heaps, awaiting the cleansing process. This was done by 
hand in all the places visited except one, where a small steam-engine was 
operating a cleaning-machine. It is said that a former contractor for trimming 
the scows was perfecting a plan for the machine cleaning of the bottles from 
all the dumps, when he was overbid for the contract, and the bottle trade 
went back to its former condition, in which it still exists. While it is strenu- 



119 

ously denied that medicine-bottles from the dumps are used by any pharma- 
cists except by foreigners in certain poorer districts of the city, it would seem 
that their use would not be more objectionable than the use of beer bottles 
from the same source, which is nowhere denied. 

Beer bottles were once handled freely in the junk trade and sold from the 
dumps to their rightful owners or to any one else willing to pay for them. But 
through the agency of the Bottlers' and Manufacturers' Association of New 
York, and similar organizations elsewhere, laws have been passed in this and 
several other States making it a crime to deal in labeled and registered bottles. 
The importance of the bottling interest in the United States is indicated by a 
recent report that the capital invested in it is $41,573,469, and that the annual 
loss of bottles, in spite of all efforts to prevent it, amounts to more than $3,500, - 
000. The New York association named have had for some years a contract 
with a member of the bottling trade for the recovery from the New York dumps 
of bottles belonging to their members. He arranges with the lessees of each 
dump for the collection of registered bottles, for which he pays a small price, 
afterwards taking them to his store, washing them and delivering them to the 
Exchange building of the Association, at Nos. 224-226 East Thirty-seventh 
street, thence to be distributed to the members. The contractor receives a fixed 
price from the Association for all bottles accepted from him. For some time 
past the monthly cost to the Association for the recovery of bottles from the 
dumps has been $805.76, which is at the rate of $9,699.12 per year. It is not 
to be supposed that the larger share of this amount goes to the lessees of the 
dumps. Besides, a portion of this money is expended for the recovery of bot- 
tles from the Brooklyn dumps, in addition to the collections there for the 
Brooklyn and Long Island Bottlers' Protective Association. The following 
figures for one year are compiled from oflicial statements published in the 
" National Bottlers' Gazette " (New York), of November 5, 1895 : 



Classes op Bottles. 


Gathbeed by the 
Bottlers' and Man- 
ufactukbes' asso- 
CIATION OP New 
YoEK, FEOM New 

YOKK AND BeOOKLYN 

Duiips. 


Gatheeed by the 
Beookltn and Long 
Island Bottlers' 
Peotective Associa- 
tion FEOM BeOOKLYN 

Dumps. 


Total. 


Siphons 


16,290 

75,823 

247,764 

760,975 

31,167 


1,951 

94,913 

153,033 

492,440 


18,241 


Quarts 


170,735 


Lagers 


400,797 


Sodas 


1,253,415 
31,167 


Weiss 




Totals 


1,132,018 


742,336 


1,874,355 





120 

(The figures in the first column are based upon actual returns for eleven 
months with estimates for the twelfth month.) 

Bottles are also recovered from scavengers in Jersey City, N. J., by the 
Hudson County Bottlers' Protective Association. 

The preceding figures do not include all the bottles reaching the dumps 
which the scow-trimmers are prohibited from selling. There are many bottlers, 
not members of any association, whose bottles are registered according to law, 
and who also arrange with the contractor mentioned above for the recovery of 
any of their property found in the dumps. He states that about 200 boxes or 
compartments are fitted up in his establishment for receiving the bottles of as 
many different bottlers of this class. Without referring to his books, he esti- 
mated that the number of registered bottles collected from the New York 
dumps alone reached 2,000,000 per year. The Editor of the " National Bottlers' 
Gazette" is of the opinion that the bottles collected for non-members of the 
New York A-Ssociation amount to at least one-third as many as for members. 

In addition to the association just referred to, there is in New York a Min- 
eral Water Manufacturers' Protective Association, whose members presumably 
recover some bottles from the dumps. There is also a federation of milk- 
bottlers, whose annual recoveries of bottles from the dumps, according to a 
former contractor, amount to 100,000. 

While registered bottles cannot lawfully be bought or sold by others than 
their owners, the dump lessees are under no obligation to save them. But they 
prefer to accept even a small sum rather than to allow the bottles to go to sea 
with the scows. Indeed, they have made bids from time to time for handling 
these bottles, with the result of lowering the contract price until the Associa- 
tion contractor now claims to be handling some classes of bottles at a loss. He 
receives but 72 cents per gross for £oda bottles, assorted and washed, deliv- 
ered to the Association, out of which he must pay the lessees of the dumps at 
the rate of 50 cents per barrel. 

So far as is known, bottlers make no discrimination between bottles recov- 
ered from the dumps and those returned direct by their customers in the ordi- 
nary course of business. Even the rubber stoppers with which most beer 
bottles are supplied are cleaned and used again, in the case of the dump bottles 
as well as in the others. 

SUMilAET. 

The trade in old bottles is very large. A single dealer in New York keeps 
on hand 5,000,000 or more, shipping to and from every State and across the 
Atlantic. Many wagon-loads of such bottles can be seen daily on the streets. 

Junk-shops are important collecting points for old bottles, which are brought 
in both by push-cart men and from residences. But junkmen are prohibited 
by law from buying " registered " bottles — such as beer and mineral waters are 
sold in. 

Registered bottles which reach the garbage dumps are returned to their 
owners through a contractor who pays the dump lessees for collecting them. 
The price paid for collecting soda bottles is 50 cents per barrel. 



121 

Other bottles from the dumps are thro'^'u into old sugar barrels and sold at 
so much per barrel to small-bottle dealers near by, who clean and assort them, 
and offer them for sale. From data obtained from various sources, I estimate 
the yearly yield of dump bottles at 36,000 barrels, worth to the scow trimmers 
$39,000. The collection of registered bottles is w^orth to them $16,000 more, 
according to a careful estimate made for me. 

It has been suggested that if all the dump bottles were gathered by one 
establishment, and cleaned with the aid of machinery, the business would 
prove profitable. But such a plant would require considerable capital ; it 
would be necessary to pay higher wages than the pi'esent handlers of the 
bottles are contented with, and, under present conditions, the proprietor could 
have no assurance that all the bottles would be brought to him for any length 
of time. Two other considerations are the long distance over which bottles 
would have to be hauled from some of the dumps, and the objection which so 
many people would have to buying bottles known to have come from the 
dumps. No doubt many of the dump bottles handled by the small dealers are 
introduced into the trade without any knowledge on the part of the ultimate 
buyers of their source. 

The collection of bottles from garbage receptacles on the sidewalks does 
not appear to be very extensive. 

In addition to v/hole bottles, broken glass, including both bottles and 
window glass, has a marketable value, and is collected at the dumps to the 
extent of about 327 bags per week, worth 10 cents per bag, or a total of $1,700 
per year. 

H. H. 

May 18, 1896. 



122 



The Old Paper Trade. 

There is a very large trade ia New York City in " jDaper stock," which 
consists of waste paper and rags suitable for paper manufacture. No other 
great industry in the United States has advanced with such strides. From 
5,000,000 pounds in 1881, the daily capacity had increased by 1895 to 22,000,000 
pounds, with an estimated production 25 per cent. less. The recent introduc- 
tion of wood pulp and other new materials into paper making, while having 
greatly lessened the prices for rags and waste paper, has not put an end to their 
use, and need never be expected to do so. 

Hundreds of establishments, large and small, handle these materials in New 
York, but only sixty-three are deemed important enough to be enumerated in 
"Lockwood's Directory of the Paper, Stationery and Allied Trades." The 
other concerns serve principally as collectors for larger houses. Probably not 
more than twenty-five houses sell directly to the paper-mills to an important 
extent. " Trow's Business Directory of New York " gives 250 addresses of 
persons handling paper stock, but this does not include all the small collectors. 
While there are dealers handling both rags and paper, the tendency is toward 
the separation of the business into two lines. The classification of paper has 
become so ramified as to render expert knowledge necessary to meet the require- 
ments of the paper-mills, and the same is even more true of rags. 

As to the volume of the trade, one firm claims to do a yearly business of 
$250,000, the larger part of which is in paper. Another reports a business of 
$125,000 a year in cotton rags alone. Still another states that it handles on an 
average 2,500 bales per week, of which 80 per cent, is paper. Estimating the 
bales at 500 pounds would make 26,000 tons of paper and 6,500 tons of rags 
annually for this house. A fourth firm say that they hacdle 9,000 tons of old 
paper annually. From such houses there is a gradual decline in rank to the 
cellar tenant whose collections do not exceed two or three tons weekly. These 
figures are given only as a few indications of the importance of the business as 
a whole. 

The work of collecting paper is of three classes, viz. : 

I. — The street collections, now monopolized by the Italians, with their gunny 
bags and push-carts. 

II. — The regular removal of waste paper from business houses, at a regular 
price by large dealers — a class in which the Italians are becoming active. 

III. — The separation of paper from garbage at the dumps, also performed 
by Italian labor. 

The evolution of the Italian paper-stock dealers, who have lately become 
prominent in the trade, is outlined below. The advantage which they possess 
in this field is their ability to subsist cheaply. A man and his wife, seen 



123 

carrying bundles of paper in the streets, said that their income was from 40 to 
75 cents per day, and that they had four young children to support. 

The first step in the trade is the gleaning of paper from ash-cans and the 
pavements by men and women carrying bags over their shoulderr. What 
they collect is carried to the smaller dealers, in cellars in Crosby or Wooster 
street, for instance, and sold at a low figure for cash. 

Gradually these collectors gain the confidence of janitors, porters, etc., who 
permit them to enter the basements of stores and otSce buildings and glean 
the boxes of sweepings, generally in return for some small service or the pay- 
ment of a small bonus to the employee in charge of the paper. 

The next step, after the privilege of entering several such stores has been 
gained, is the acquisition of a push-cart and an unoccupied cellar, to which 
the paper is conveyed and assorted, each class of paper being kept separately 
imtil there is enough for a bale, when it is packed and taken to a lai'ger 
handler. 

As the cellar man begins to get money ahead, he buys paper by the bagful 
from the class to which he formerly belonged, the gleaners' need of money 
making them willing to accept a very small price. A horse and truck suc- 
ceeds the push-cart, and the number and importance of the stores from which 
he gathers paper increases, imtil he succeeds long-established houses in the 
trade in handling their paper. The waste from a great dry-goods house in 
Grand street, which until lately went to one of the largest paper houses, is now 
taken by a small Italian operator, who bid more for it because he could handle 
it at a lower cost for labor„ 

The larger part of the waste-paper trade is based upon the removal, under 
contract, of paper by dealers from printing houses, binderies, newspaper 
oflSces, paper-box factories, and large stores of various kinds. In such cases 
the paper is paid for at prices related to its market value, leaving a margin to 
pay the collector for the labor of assorting and baling. The making of paper 
boxes is carried on in many large establishments, some of which have four or 
five tons of scraps to dispose of every week. Wherever books, pamphlets, and 
magazines are printed and bound, the trimming of the margins yields quan- 
tities of paper "shavings." Perhaps half of the millions of newspapers sold 
in the city find their way to the old paper trade. Many dry -goods stores 
yield 1,000 pounds or more of salable paper daily. 

The prices paid by the larger dealers for such stock varies from 30 cents 
to |1.25 per hundred weight (or $6 to $25 per ton), according to quantity. The 
smaller operators, whose collections change hands several times before they 
reach the paper manufacturer, pay much less, where they pay anything at all for 
paper. The table of quotations for paper stock which follows gives the prices 
paid by the paper mills, to which must be added freight from New York. It 
is extracted from " The Paper Trade Journal" of New York, for April 11, 
1896, and gives the prices in the terms usually employed in the trade, to which 
I have added the equivalent prices per ton : 



124 



CLASSiriCATION. 


Per Pound. 


Pee Cwt. 


Per Ton. 


Print papers 


If to It 
If to If 

2 to 21 


25 to — 
40 to 45 
25 to 30 
75 to 85 
60 to 65 
50 to — 
95 to 100 
110 to 120 
50 to 751 

70 to 75 
35 to 40| 


15.00 to 

8.00 to $9.00 
5.00 to 6.00 

15.00 to 17.00 


Folded newspapers 


Old waste papers 

Manilla paper No. 1 


Manilla paper, good mixed .... 
Manilla paper, blues 


12.00 to 13.00 
10 00 to 


Mixed book stock 


19.00 to 20.00 


Books and pamphlets 

Book stock, light 


22.00 to 24.00 
10.00 to 15 10 


Letters and ledgers 


27.50 to 37.50 


Soft book shavings 


27.50 to 85.00 


Hard white book shavings 

Leather board chips 


40.00 to 45.00 
14.00 to 15.00 


Straw chips 


7.00 to 8.12i 







So greatly do the cheaper grades predominate in the ordinary run of paper 
that $9 per ton is named as a fair average price by the manager of a certain 
long-established firm, who sometimes receive a single order for as much as 500 
tons of folded newspapers. 

With respect to the trade of this firm, without referring to their books, 
their manager said that they handled weekly from 500 to 750 tons of paper 
stock, or an average of over 600 tons. Of this 80 per cent, was paper, making 
from 400 to 600 Ions weekly, or an average of 500 tons. At an average price of 
$9 per ton, this would amount to |4,500 a week, or $234,000 per year for 
paper alone. 

In the opinion of the same authority, the total trade in the city might be 
estimated approximately by supposing that there were fifteen final shippers of 
paper, their average business amounting to one-half of the preceding figures. 

Thus 250 tons (one-half of Blank's trade) 

Multiplied by 15 



Oives . 
At... 



3,750 tons (weekly total for the city) 
$9 per ton 



We have 

Multiplied by. 

There is 



$33,750 for weeklv value, and 
52 



L, 755, 000 for the yearly value. 



125 

At one dry-goods house on Broadway the sweepings, including every form 
of refuse from the store except ashes, are carried at the close of each day to a 
cellar, where they are picked over for salable paper. What remains 
is removed daily in large boxes to the comjDany's stable, whence it is 
carted every second day to Jersey City and dumped for filling purposes. The 
paper is the only item from which anything is realized. The month of October, 
1895, selected at random from the firm's records, showed the following results : 

Sales of paper 31.418 pounds. 

Returns at 30 cents per cwt ^94 25 

At the same rate the showing for a year would be : 

Sales of paper 377,0] 6 pounds. 

Returns at 30 cents per cwt $1,131 

The paper is disposed of usually about twice per week, the semi-weekly 
accumulations during the month named having varied between 1,720 and 
2,710 pounds. The paper is sold without classification to a paper collector 
occupying a cellar in Wooster street, where it is assorted and, together with 
their other collections, packed in bales. These people sell it to large handlers 
■of old paper and the latter in turn to the paper-mills. 

It is estimated by the superintendent of the dry-goods house referred to 
that the unsalable refuse from the store amounts to twice as much in weight as 
the paper collected, or about 2,000 pounds daily for the dump. This material 
for a single day was shown me, consisting of sawdust, excelsior, paper and 
cloth sciaps, bits of wood, etc., and amounting evidently to ten or twelve cubic 
yards in bulk. According to their superintendent the firm would be willing to 
have the Department of Street Cleaning remove all their store sweepings free of 
charge, evidently not regarding $94.25 (the receipts in a month from paper 
sales) a sufficient return for the culling of paper and handing the remain- 
ing refuse, including the cartage of twenly-five to thirty tons across the 
North river. It is stated that after this waste reaches Jersey City and is thrown 
aAvay, it is picked over by Italians for anything salable it may contain. 

At another large store visited four men are kept employed handling the 
waste products — two during the day and two at night. The salable jiaper 
culled from the store sweepings is packed, without being assorted, in bales of 
200 to 250 pounds each, and removed twice a week by a dealer in paper stock 
in Pearl street. The output is estimated at 9,000 pounds a week, which is at 
the rate of 234 tons per year. The remaining refuse — l. e., everything but ashes 
and the waste from the restaurant — is burned in a special type of furnace in 
the basement of the store, devised by their engineer. He estimates the amount 
of this refuse at four or five "horse-loads" daily, which is consumed without 
the use of fuel, leaving only enough residue to fill a single ash can. The 
economy of this method is highly regarded by the firm, and the surroundings 
of the furnace are certainly clean. 

The Pearl street dealer referred to seems to be having a large share of the 
trade in removing paper from dry -goods stores. His wagons call regularly at 



126 

such stores as those of B. Altman & Co., in Sixth avenue ; Stern Brothers, in 
Twenty-third street ; Bloomingdale Brothers, in Third avenue, and H. C. F. 
Koch & Co., in Harlem. He represents some paper manufacturers who supply 
these dry- goods houses with a particular quality of paper which they require, 
their bills being credited with the price of the waste-paper collected from the 
stores. The stores thus get a higher consideration for their paper than would 
be possible any other way. 

A similar system was found in other lines of the trade. For instance, a 
firm of paper-stock dealers in West Broadway are interested in a paper-board 
manufactory in Jersey City. The wagons which convey the product of this 
factory to the paper-box makers in New York are loaded on their return with 
scraps of boards. Likewise, the daily newspapers are credited at the paper 
mills with remnants of paper from the press-rooms and unsold copies of their 
issues. 

The following list embraces some of the largest dealers in paper stock in 
New York, but not all of those who ship directly to the paper-mills. The 
firms named buy baled paper from smaller operators, and also receive orders 
from paper-mills which thej^ attempt to fill, whether or not they have in stock 
the material wanted. Considei'able capital is required in this business, since 
the paper manufacturers, as a rule, do not buy for cash, while the purchasers 
from the smaller Italian collectors must pay cash. 

Darmstadt & Scott, No. 312 Water street and 257 Front street, 

John H. Lyon & Co., 12 Reade street and 35 Park. 

Maurice O'Meara, 448 Pearl street. 

James M. Fitzgerald & Co., 413 West Broadway and 268-269 West street. 

Chase & North, 277 Water street. 

Philip Metz, 49 Ann street. 

Dennis Shea, 503 Pearl street. 

George F. Hills, No. 40 New Bowery. 

John T. Godfrey, No. 265 Front street. 

Luke Boyle & Co., No. 341 West Broadway. 

Nicholas V. Cantasano & Bro., No. 43 Duane street. 

James Nicholas, No. 61 Ann street. 

P. F. O'Neill & Co., No. 429 East One Hundred and Seventeenth street. 

The smaller collectors are apt to be grouped together, and a few of the 
places which I have noted are named below. The volume of the business of 
this class ranges from two or three tons per week to the same amount per 
day. The principal centres of the retail trade are in Ann street, Crosby street, 
Wooster and Thompson streets, Centre and Pearl streets, and in West Broad- 
way. Isolated houses or cellars will be found all over the city. 

Crosby Street. 
No. 42, Joseph Androlli. 
No. 45, Joseph Calandrero. 
No. 63, David Michael. 
No. 68, Frank D. Angelo. 



127 



No. 70, 
No. 71, 
No. 87, 
No. 90, 
No. 95, 
No. 99, 
No. 101 
No. 103 



Curl & Richecap. 
Morris Abeles. 
Carmine Gatti & Bro. 
Antonio Dezego &: Bro. 
Rocco Durando. 
Peter Vitacco & Co. 
, Joseph Cafre. 
, Antonio Calandrele. 



Wooste7' Street. 



No. 49, Dominic Carareta. 

No. 75, Nicola Vassa & Co. 

No. 123, (no sign). 

No. 143, John Romanello. 

No. 151, J. Caputo and J. Libonati. 

Peai'l Street. 

No. 363, Gaetano Viverito & Co. 
No. 364, V. James Tursio. 
No. 365, (no sign). 

The handling of what is known as "dump " stock forms a distinct branch 
of the trade. This is the cheapest class of waste paper, and is in limited and 
comparatively uncertain demand. On account of the tilth which is liable to 
become attached to paper which has been mixed with garbage, the health 
authorities do not permit it to be stored in the city except at the dumps, for 
which reason none of it reaches the regular paper warehouses. When orders 
are received from manufacturers for " dump " stock the collection of it is 
stimulated, while it drops off at other times. Such stock is more salable in 
the summer, since wet weather causes the wetting of the paper, and its per- 
meation by the dirt adhering to it. This dirt cannot be gotten out except by 
expensive manipulation. It is said that paper stored at the dumps sometimes 
becomes wet and must be thrown into the scows on account of being unsal- 
able. 

One dealer in paper stock informed me that he paid on an average $25 per 
week for paper from three dumps, all the collections from which are brought 
to him. He allows for collections : 



No. 1 Manilla 
Straw chips. . 
Commons . . . . 



Pee Cwt. 


Pee Ton. 


30 cents. 


$6.00 


35 " 


7.00 


20 " 


4.00 



128 

He sells this paper at an advance of about 25 per cent. These prices would 
allow for the expenditure of |25, the following weekly collections : 

No. 1 Manilla 4 tons. 

Straw Chips S} 

Commons 6^ " 

His estimate is that one ton each per day or six tons per week might be 
safely taken as the capacity not only of these three dumps, but of all the others 
in the city — fifteen in all. Accepting this estimate, the possible capacity of the 
dumps as a source of paper would be : 

Number of dumps 15 

Weekly average yield 6 tons. 

Total weight 90 tons. 

Average price per ton |4| 

Total, weekly for the dumps |375 

Multiplied by 52 

Annual income of dumps from paper $19,480 

These figures have not been fully verified, and they are offered as showing, 
not the amount of paper actually gathered from the dumps, but the possible 
returns in case there should be a demand for the paper. 

As for actual returns, I have an estimate from one who has been in a posi- 
tion to know, taking into account the fact that only the better grades of paper 
are collected regularly at the dumps, while the commoner sorts are ignored 
except when orders for the paper are in hand. Adding together the figures 
from this source for the dumps separately shows a total for the year of a little 
over $11,000. The three dumps just referred to, by the way, are among the 
best in the city. 

The paper gleaned from ash-cans on the streets sells at a lower price than 
corresponding grades which have been kept clean. Folded or flat papers of any 
grade bring the highest prices. Crumpled papers, no matter how clean, bring 
less money, if for no other reason than that at the paper mill every crumpled 
sheet must be examined, to see that it does not embrace dirt or foreign sub- 
stances likely to prove deleterious. The term " street stock " or " street paper " 
is used to describe paper of this class, which, at one of the largest houses in 
the trade was estimated to include 5 per cent, of the paper collections in the 

city. 

Summary. 

The most complete estimate that has been furnishedof the volume of the 
old-paper trade in New York is 195,000 tons, worth free on board to the paper- 
mills $9 per ton, making a yearly total of $1,755,000. This figure seems to me 
too large for volume, but about right for value per ton. Complete verification 



129 

of the figures would necessitate inquiries in a great number of places, in some 
of which information is grudgingly given. 

The total given is larger than would be indicated by the figures given to me 
confidentially from the books of some other concerns. 

The estimate of a leading firm that 5 per cent, of the above amount is 
" street stock," would give a weekly collection from the streets of 187^ tons, 
or a daily collection of 31 J.^ tons, or an average of 1,000 pounds a day, for 63 
operators. This amount, without reference to the larger estimate, seems to me 
reasonable. The material embraced under this head would amount, at $9 per 
ton, to 167,750 per year. The same collectors handle still more paper of a class 
which would not come within the jurisdiction of the Department in any case. 

It is impossible yet to say how much of the paper waste handled in New 
York warehouses is collected outside the city. The amount of paper waste 
imported from Europe is comparatively unimportant — amounting in 1894 to 
5,713 and in 1895 to 2,276 bales. 

The larger part of the paper stock handled is disposed of for a valuable con- 
sideration by the houses in which it originates. 

The prices quoted for paper waste are those charged to paper manufac 
turers, who pay, in addition, freight on the bales. Prices vary, according to 
the conditions of the market. There are from a dozen to a hundred different 
grades and variations in paper stock, and the profit in handling large lots may 
often depend upon the care used in assorting. The prices quoted also repre- 
sent the value of all the labor employed in collecting paper, conveying it about 
the city, assorting and baling it, the cost of storage, etc. The original collec- 
tor of paper in any grade may have to dispose of it for very much less money 
— for even a fourth or less. 

There are some houses (stores and the like), having a considerable output 
of old paper which would rather be relieved of all their rubbish by the Depart- 
ment of Street Cleaning than to pay the wages necessary to recover the paper 
W'hich they now sell . On the other hand, the manager of a large store stated 
that they found that it paid to have the sweepings of each day carefully ex- 
amined in order to prevent the loss of valuable articles, and while this exami- 
nation was in progress the men engaged in it might as well put aside the 
salable paper. He thought that very few houses of the class which he repre- 
sented would be willing to surrender the store sweepings to the Department. 

A suggestion which seems especially worthy of consideration comes from 
the practice of a large dry goods store, in which the refuse, unsalable paper 
included, is incinerated in a special furnace in the basement. Another large 
store utilizes the boiler furnaces for the combustion of refuse, leaving nothing 
but ashes to be hauled away. 

From references to the subject at numerous places in the book of which 
this report forms a part, it will be seen that the trade in rags in INevv York is 
very large. The demand is constant for cotton rags as paper-slock and for 
woolen rags as material for the " shoddy " mills. This city is a centre for the 
trade over so large a section of the country, the number of dealers is so large. 



130 

and the extent of their business so varied, that it is impracticable to estimate 
the volume of the trade originating in the city. Rags are collected by push- 
cart men, carried direct from households to the junk-dealers, gleaned from 
ash-barrels and collected in large amounts at the dumps. Of the total it is 
largely a matter of conjecture what proportion comes properly under the 
notice of tlie Department of Street Cleaning. Handlers of rags from the 
dumps are careful not to advertise the fact extensively, and manufacturers 
using them are disinclined to admit the fact. For these reasons the item in 
relation to rags in the table which concludes this report is less satisfactory to 
the compiler of the table than any other portion of it. 

Considerable scrap-iron reaches the dumps, which are visited from time to 
time by the wagons of dealers in such material. They pay .|5 or $6 per 
" load," aggregating perhaps $100 per week for all the dumps. Great quanti- 
ties of this material lie in the yards of some of the dealers — gathered from 
other sources as well as from the dumps — and it is a problem what is the final 
disposition of it all. Some of it has been disposed of as ship's ballast. 

The remaining metals — lead, zinc, brass, copper and pewter — are collected 
in smaller quantities, owing to the greater readiness with which these metals 
may be disposed of at any junk-shop. Their total value is estimated at about 
three-fourths that of scrap-iron. 

Tin cans collected at the New York dumps are sold to a company operating 
plants at Jersey City and Long Island City, where they are treated for the 
recovery of solder and afterward utilized for various purposes, but chiefly in 
the manufacture of sash-weights. The process is covered by a patent — No. 
419,195, granted to William E. Harris, of New York, January 14, 1890. In 
this process the tin-scrap is placed in a pot in the fire-box of a furnace heated 
to the degree necessary to ignite petroleum, and a cheap grade of oil is poured 
over it. The heat generated by the furnace, together with the burning of the 
oil, melts the solder, which is collected from the bottom of the pot after the 
tinned iron has been withdrawn. Another purpose served by the burning oil 
is to cover the tinned surfaces with a smut, which prevents the solder from 
spreading over and adhering to them. There is a variety of demands in the 
trades for small pieces of metal such as can be stamped out of the flattened 
ends and sides of tin cans, and the remaining scrap is melted and cast into 
sash-weights. Tin cuttings from the shops and old roofing-tin to some extent 
are utilized in the same way. This scrap affords the cheapest metal now 
obtainable for sash-w^eights, and the demand is pretty steady, though at pres- 
ent three of the five factories operated in different cities by the company 
referred to are said to be closed for the \vant ©f orders. The quantity of tin 
cans reported to be collected at each of the New York dumps aggregates 2,288 
loads — of practically a ton — worth $3, or $6,864 per year. I am told that a ton 
of tin scrap should yield 100 pounds of solder, worth |7, but that, taking into 
account the cost of treatment, the net result is only to lessen the cost of the 
iron wanted by the manufacturers hy about $1 per ton. 

Several patents have been issued at Washington, to both American and 



131 

foreign inventors, for processes for the recovery of tin from tin-scrap, but none 
of them is now extensively operated. When it is considered that tin forms 
less than three per cent, of the weight of tin-plate, it is easy to see how the 
cost of its recovery through the use of expensive acids may often exceed the 
value of the metal recovered. 

Following is a table, compiled from the best available sources, of the 
amounts of the principal materials collected from the New York dumps, with 
the weekly and yearly values, at prices now current. Under some of the 
headings the figures have been verified so fully that they may be accepted as 
accurate, though the table as a whole, for obvious reasons, must be accepted 
only as approximating to correctness : 



Mateeials. 


Pee Week. 


Pek Yeab. 


2,165 bbls. Bones, at 40 cents 


$866 00 
1,416 00 


$45,032 00 
73,632 00 


236,000 lbs. Rags, at 60 cents (per 100) 


55,500 lbs. Carpets, at 20 cents (per 100) 


111 00 


5,772 00 


45,100 lbs. Grease, at $1.10 (per 100) 


496 10 


25,797 20 


500 bbls. Bottles at $1 50 


750 00 


39,000 00 
1,700 40 


327 bags Broken Glass, at 10 cents 


32 70 


39 loads Registered Bottles, at §-8 


312 00 


16,224 00 


20 loads Iron, cast, at $5 to $6 


101 00 


5,252 00 


2,555 lbs. Metals, at 3 cents 


76 65 
132 00 


3,985 80 


44 loads Tin Cans, at $3 


6 864 00 


49,200 lbs. Paper, at 25 to 50 cents (per 100) 


213 80 


11,117 60 




$4,507 25 


$234,377 00 



April 22, 1896. 



H. H. 



132 



Utilization of Clean Ashes in the City of New York. 

The proposition to keep separate the various household wastes of the City of 
New York, presupposes a belief that more advantageous disposition can be 
made of them if thus treated. 

It was known that clean ashes would be gladly accepted by owners of 
land for filling purposes, and it has been my duty to learn of other possible 
methods of disposal. 

The amoimt of ashes collected annually by the carts of the Department of 
Street Cleaning in the City of New York approximates 1,500,000 cubic yards. 
Heretofore these ashes have been mixed with garbage and other wastes, and 
have been useless for any purpose ; but from a study of the disposition of the 
ashes produced in factories, ofBce buildings, and the locomotives of the Ele. 
vated Railroad (all of which are known locally as steam ashes, are kept clean, 
and are hauled away by private contract), I have been able to learn the various 
avenues of disposal which would be open to the City were the household 
ashes free from mixture with other wastes. 

The disposal of refuse has been a matter of so much expense and concern, 
that while I was prepared to find adjoining lowlands freely offered as dumping 
grounds for clean ashes — even to the extent of the City's output for years to 
come, I was surprised to learn that the demand for ashes within the City, for 
building purposes, so far exceeds the present supply of steam ashes from 
sources mentioned above, as, in the opinion of numerous builders and from 
my own computation, to call for a large share of the household ashes as soon 
as they can be had, and leave only a portion of the midwinter supply available 
for lowland filling. 

Another pleasing result of this study, is the conviction that clean ashes have 
become so valuable for building operations that contractors will gladly pay 
the small amount per cubic yard which will requite the City for storing the 
ashes at the dumping stations for the few hours or few days that may be 
necessary at different times of the year, and which will, to the extent of the 
ashes thus used, leave the only expense to the City that of collection. 

The present cost of ashes delivered at new buildings is supposed to be mere- 
ly the cost of hauling; but while in cold weather the price is 25c. per load of 
one cubic yard, it frequently rises during the summer to 60c. per load, and is 
seldom less than 50c. between March and November. This is due, of course, 
to the scarcity of ashes during nine months of the year ; and I am assured by 
various builders that it would be a boon to them if clean ashes could be regu- 
larly procured at a small cost for storage, at the various Department dumping 
stations which, happily for builders' convenience, are well distributed along 
the river fronts. They say that under such circumstances the City's household 



133 

ashes would be used as rapidly as made, certainly for six months of each year, 
probably for nine months. Those best fitted to judge are of opinion that the 
household ashes will be entirely suitable for builders' needs, though they dififer 
materially in character and appearance from steam ashes. 

It is but proper in this place to record the unusual willingness to furnish 
information on the part of all of whom it was requested ; the men engaged in 
furnishing ashes all hailing the proposed new supply, the architects and build- 
ers all expressing a desire to aid in any manner the researches of the Depart- 
ment. 

Use Under Sidewalks. 

One of the minor uses of ashes in construction is found in the laying of 
sidewalks, flagging, etc. Here there is necessary a loose, dry substance, as a 
substratum which will not readily bring the water of the underlying earth 
up to the coveiing stone or cement, and which in winter will not be readily 
affected by frost, since its porositj' will furnish room for internal expansion. 
It hiis been customary for some time to lay sidewalks with a substratum of 
from four to eight inches of ashes (when the ashes were available), and the 
value of the practice is attested by a late order of the Department of Public 
Works to the effect that, in future construction, sidewalks must be underlaid 
to a depth of at least four inches by either ashes or gravel. 

To afford me a rough estimate of the possible output of ashes for this pur- 
pose, 1 was informed by Mr. Towle, of the Department of Public Works, that 
during the year 1895 the City laid 231,500 square feet of new sidewalk ; and he 
estimates that private parties laid about 600,000 square feet of new walk, which 
does not appear on the City's record. During the same year nearly 50,000 
square feet of old walk was relaid by the City, and nearly 300,000 square feet 
by private parlies in answer to notices from the Department. This makes 
approximately 1,200,000 square feet of sidewalk which, if it were underlaid 
with ashes to a minimum depth of four inches, would require 400,000 cubic feet 
or 15,000 cubic yards. A rough computation of the amount needed for the 
flagging and cement walks of rear yards shows about as much more, or a total 
of 30,000 cubic yards of ashes for use at the surface of the ground. 

Use Under Cellars. 

Another call for ashes, and for somewhat similar reasons, is in forming a 
foundation for the cement floors of cellars. I am told by the men in the busi- 
ness than nothing else is so satisfactory for the purpose, and that nothing else 
would be used if enough ashes were always available. 

The best estimate I am able to make of the amount needed for the purpose 
is as follows : 

There were erected in the City last year, according to the "Record and 
Guide," 3,838 buildings, with probable average cellar dimensions of 25 x 90, 
or 3,250 square feet. An average ash substratum of six inches would give 
average capacity of 1,125 cubic feet, or 42 cubic yards per building, and this 
multiplied by the number of buildings gives approximately 160,000 cubic 



134 

yards of space to be filled ; but since the ashes are rammed down and, I am 
told, suffer a compression of about 20 per cent., I am inclined to set 200,000 
cubic yards (as they are loaded) as the amount needed annually for cellars. 

Use in Fihe-proop Floors. 

The most extensive present utilization of ashes, however, is found in the 
construction of fire-proof floors in the large office buildings, factories, store- 
houses and (under the last building law) the first stories of apartment and tene- 
ment houses more than four stories in height. Here the steel floor-beams are 
from 10 to 15 inches deep to afliord sufficient carrying capacity, and the floor is 
supported by brick arches which rest upon the flanges of the beams. For ap- 
pearance sake, the under as well as the upper surface of the floor must cover 
the beams, making a floor thickness of from 15 to 22 inches, though such a 
depth of brick would be expensive and heavy and more than is necessary for 
strength. In the upper portion of all such floors therefore, to an average 
depth of about 6 inches, the place of brick is taken by ashes compressed and 
sometimes mixed with 5 or 6 per cent, of cement. As long as the present 
thick and heavy floors are in fashion the use of ashes for this purpose will 
probably continue and perhaps increase. 

I have endeavored to make an approximate computation of the annual re- 
quirement in the following manner : 

Having failed to find any list of fire-proof structures among the records of 
new buildings, but having learned from an experienced builder the other 
characteristics given in the records which almost infallibly point to fire-proof 
construction, I took the list of new buildings for 1895, and, by these tests 
selecting the fire-proof structures as they came, multiplied in each case the 
floor dimensions by the number of floors, took the average depth as 6 inches, 
and thus obtained the space to be filled. The sum of these gave about 600,000 
cubic yards as a probable measure of the new floor space desirable to be filled 
with ashes during the year 1895. 

I was led to believe also that the amount of building of that year might be 
safely used as a basis for computation. 

A check upon these figures, which served to confirm their value, was found 
by learning the number of cubic yards of ashes used in each of a certain 
number of large buildings whose cost was stated in the records. A ratio be- 
tween the cost and the ash consumption was thus obtained, which, divided into 
the total cost of such buildings for 1895, a statement of which was at hand, 
gave an independent rough estimate of the total amount of ashes needed. 
Some of the large buildings require as much as 5,000 cubic yards each, 
many smaller buildings 1,500 cubic yards each. 

Use in Fire-proof Partitions. 

For the partition walls of these buildings, also, every effort is made to pro- 
vide material combining lightness with the fire-proof quality, and I learn that 
there is frequently used a half-and-half mixture of ashes and plaster in the 



135 

form of hollow brick or partition blocks, which are lighter than ordinary 
hollow brick and sufficiently strong for modern construction in which the 
walls of each story are independent of those of any other. I have not been 
able to learn the amount of ashes thus consumed, but the hollow ash-brick 
appear to be satisfactory and the use is likely to increase. 

Use in Manufacture op Brick and Concrete. 

Many attempts have been made to manufacture, from ashes and some kind 
of cement, a light ash-brick as a substitute for ordinary red burnt brick. So 
far, however, these brick have all been made by hand, no brick machine 
proving suitable for the work, since ash mixtures have not the frictionless 
characteristics of wet clay ; and, in addition, very few cements are known 
which can be used for the purpose with economy, because the proportion 
necessary is large. 

Frequently during the past ten years, investigations of more or less scien- 
tific character and value nave been made by private individuals or by persons 
connected with Departments of Public Works. Sometimes the object aimed 
at was the production of brick, sometimes of artificial stone iu large sizes, 
sometimes of concrete ; but the results seem not to have warranted continu- 
ance. In New York, perhaps the fact that clean ashes were not to be had 
caused a lack of enthusiasm ; but I have found few results of these experi- 
ments except the record of manufacture and occasional test. The field, how- 
ever, is so large, and the wisdom of thus utilizing city ashes near their place 
of production is so apparent, that it is probable continued effort will not be 
lacking to make possible this industrial advance. 

Somewhat more than one year ago a few experiments were made by this 
Department to test the strength and enduring qualities of mixtures of coarse 
ashes, made into brick with various proportions of various cements. But 
while the work was done in a scientific manner, and the results demonstrated 
the feasibility of the plan, the experiments were discontinued until a greater 
necessity for them should arise. 

Quite lately, and during the collection of data for this paper, I have found 
in experimental operation, by the use of a cement whose constitution was 
kept a business secret, a process for making from ordinary house ashes 
either concrete, or stone in mass, or brick, in appearance at once pleasing to 
the eye and suggestive of considerable strength and toughness. 

For the purpose of determining the suitability of this material for build- 
ing purposes I had tests of its strength under compression made on the Emery 
Testing Machine, under direction of Prof. Ira H. Woolson, of the School of 
Mines, Columbia College. All pieces tested were approximately two-inch 
cubes ; some moulded to that size, some cut from the interior of large bricks ; 
all said to be less than thirty days old and made without pressure ; all having 
specific gravity about 1.78, that of ordinary brick being 1.8 to 2.0. 

Omitting the results of tests on various combinations of ashes and saw- 
dust, omitting the technicalities and details of Prof. Woolson's report, and 



136 

giving the result only in round numbers, the tests on mixtures of house ashes 
in various proportions with this cement gave compression strength per square 
incli as follows : 



Charaotbb or Ashes. 


Propor- 
tion OF 
Ashes to 
Cement. 


How Made 
TO Ctjee. 


Number 

OF Tests 

Made. 


Crushing Load, 

Pounds per 

Square 

Inch. 


Coarse ashes mixed with [ 
cinders and fine coal ) 

Sifted fine ashes 


3 to 2 
3 to 2 
3 to 2 
8 to 2 


Sawn 
Moulded 


2 

2 
1 
2 


Nearly 5,000. 
" 10,000. 


K t< 


Over 15,000. 


<< It 


" 7,000. 







From this synopsis of the report of the test, it is seen that the sawn cubes 
containing much cinder and small coal broke under a crushing load of 5,000 
pounds per square inch ; the sawn cubes of sifted fine ashes withstood nearly 
10,000 pounds to the square inch ; while the moulded cube with a dry, hard 
surface (all the test specimens were said to be less than thirty days old) with- 
stood 15,000 pounds per square inch. Two moulded cubes composed of four 
parts of ashes to one of cement withstood 7,000 pounds per square inch. 

As this material may be made in blocks of any size and be used either as 
mortar, concrete or brick, I append a table of comparative statistics, for aid in 
the collection of which I am indebted to Prof. Woolson, of the School of 
Mines. Table I. shows the compression strength of various mortars in common 
use ; Table II. , of well-known concretes ; Table III. , of common, pressed and 
face brick found in New York or adjacent cities ; Table IV., of portions of 
wall made from the best of these bricks and mortars. 

The strength of a wall is determined, of course, by the strength of its weak- 
est bond ; and since ordinary cement mortar is much weaker than ordinary 
brick, I have contemplated with pleasure the possibility of having our city 
ashes made into a cheap but strong and handsome brick which should be 
cemented by mortar of its own kind and strength into walls more firm and 
light than any heretofore known. It would be the perfection of "waste" 
utilization to build dwelling-houses in June from the dwelling-house ash of 
May. 

Tests of the tensile strength of these bricks, made at the Fairbanks testing 
station in this city, gave as the average of four measurements all close together, 
a breaking strain of over 500 lbs. per square inch. Two other samples, richer 
in cement, were not broken at 1,000 lbs. per square inch, the limit of the 
machine. All the test specimens were said to be less than thirty days old. 



137 



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141 

After this I submitted the brick to fire test and weather test. Under the 
fire test, which was not sufliciently extended or severe to have a determining 
value, the material did well ; but under the weather test, I am sorry to say that 
it entirely failed. Continued exposure to water changes its color and causes 
serious deterioration. Notwithstanding the strength, lightness and beauty, 
when dry, of this particular kind of ash-brick, ash mortar and ash-concrete, I 
am bound to say that if the specimens submitted to me are fair samples of the 
article, this ash mixture must find its usefulness in covered work where it will 
be kept dry. There is a large demand, I believe, for such building material 
which is never exposed to water, called "filling-in" brick, and it is possible 
that our ashes can be utilized largely in this manner. 

It is certain, at least, that if the city's output can be delivered at the Depart- 
ment dumps or at other convenient places, in proper condition, the use of it 
for various building purposes for which it is known to be suitable, will almost 
equal the total supply for nine months of each year ; and it is possible that the 
manufacture of ash into brick and concrete may become, at an early date, a 
considerable industry, and make clean ashes an article of commerce. 

Reference has been omitted in this paper to the possibilities of low-land Sil- 
ling, as these are well known for the vicinity of New York ; and attention has 
been concentrated upon the industrial uses of ash — which are considerable, 
and the industrial possibilities — which are greater. 

C. H. K. 

June 15, 1896. 



142 



History of the Garbage Contract. 

The following paper, giving a short histor}' of the bids, etc., in relation to 
the final disposition of the city's wastes, can best be introduced by the letter 
of April 9, J.896, which was supplied to the leading daily newspapers : 

Apkil 9th, 1896. 

Disposal, of the City's "Wastes. 

After the contract for the disposal of garbage goes into effect, new 
methods will be adopted for the treatment of all our wastes. Some of them 
are already inaugurated, and all should be in full use before the end of the 
year. 

1. Garbage will be kept separate in such vessels as the Board of Health 
may prescribe, and will be collected by special carts ; 

2. Ashes and dust (free from paper and other rubbish) will be kept within 
the house, or in the back yard, in special cans. From these they will be re- 
moved in tied bags by Department rnen, who will stand them on the edge of 
the sidewalk ; 

3. Street dirt will be placed in a bag (carried on a light truck) as fast as it 
is swept up. When the bag is filled, it will be tied and stood on the sidewalk. 
This system has been in use in Madison avenue since last summer, and is now 
being extended. 

The ash carts will move slowly along the streets with enough men attend- 
ing to throw the bags into them as they pass. Thus, the shovelling of sweep- 
ings and the emptying of receptacles, as well as the standing of receptacles on 
the sti-eets, and the collecting of sweepings into piles, with their attendant 
dust, litter and nuisance, will be forever done away with. 

4. All refuse, other than garbage, ashes and dust, will be kept within the 
house until called for by the Department " Paper-Carts," which will remove 
everything the householder wants to get rid of, from an envelope to a mat- 
tress or a cooking stove. These things will be taken to central depots where 
everything of salable value will be separated, and all else will be cremated. 

When this system is in complete operation, not only will the streets be 
clean, but they will also be tidy. Blowing papers and the dust nuisance will 
have disappeared. Furthermore, the |80,000 hitherto received by the city for 
the privilege of picking bones, bottles, rags, etc., during the trimming of the 
scows, will be replaced by many times that amount received for the much 
larger quantity of material collected, and collected in mtich better condition. 
There are further possibilities, as to the use of unsalable paper for pasteboard, 
the development of steam for power by the burning of refuse, the use of ashes 



143 

for making brick and concrete work. But concerning these we are not yet in 
a position to make any public statement . 

The obtaining of information as to articles of possible value, which are now 
practically thrown away, and which might be-recovered and sold, has involved 
an expenditure on the part of the city, in the form of scow-trimming money 
received by Herbert Tate since June 17, 1895, of $57,225. Of this, $6,150 has 
been paid as compensation to Herbert Tate and his assistants for the installa- 
tion and management of the investigation ; $480 for rent of the lot where the 
crematory stands at the corner of Fifty-third street and Twelfth avenue ; $5,- 
800 for the construction of the crematory and appurtenances; $1,339 for the 
operation of the crematory. There stands to the credit of the crematory ac- 
count aboiit $1,850 received for paper, bottles, shoes, etc., sold. 

The remainder of the sum received has been used for the employment of 
carts and trucks, varying in number from 41 to 79, and averaging 54 per day. 
Believing always that the experiment was to last but a few months, collection 
was made from all parts of the city below Fifty-ninth street, and irregularly 
ab ove Fifty -ninth street, with a view to preventing the people from putting 
their paper and rubbish into the streets. This has had a good effect — by no 
means a complete effect. The material collected in the Fifth District, being 
between Twenty-second street and Fifty-eighth street, and from Sixth avenue 
to the Hudson river, together with a portion of what was collected above 
Fifty-eighth street, was delivered at the crematory, foot of Fifty-third street, 
and was made the subject of the experiment referred to above. 

There has been a doubt in the minds of some persons as to my authority 
for applying the scow-trimming money to this use. The case was presented 
in all its details to the Counsel to the Corporation, Mr. Scott, and he not only 
said that I had the right to use the money in this way, but that he thought it 
would be well worth while to find out whether or not there was a possibility 
of getting a greater value out of the wastes of the city than it was then 
receiving. 

The experiment would have been concluded last autumn had the plan been 
carried out at that time of asking proposals for the treatment of garbage. By 
request of the Mayor this plan was changed, and, on terms and conditions 
approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, an advertisement was 
published asking for proposals for the disposition of all of the wastes of the 
city. The bids under this proposal were oi^ened December 10, 1895, without 
result. 

The next advertisement asked for proposals for disposing of garbage alone, 
at a fixed price per ton. This was dated January 22, 1896; the bids were to 
be opened February 4, but the time was extended to February 17, for readver. 
tising. This also was without result. 

Again, on the 12th of March, 1896, we advertised for proposals fcr the 
removal of garbage alone, at a per annum price, the bids to be received up to 
March 26. 

March 17 proposals were asked for the disposition of ashes, sweepings, gar- 



144 

bage, etc. ; these were to be received March 30. Both sets of bids were opened 
on March 39, 1896. These proposals are now under consideration. 

As soon as the decision of this question allows us to resume the even tenor 
of our way, we shall make ready to close up our experimental work, and go 
forward with our plans for handling all of our output in the manner set forth. 

A false start was made in April, 1895, with Walton & Co., but, after they 
had used $1,667.90 of the scow-trimming money, the arrangement was found 
not to be satisfactory, and it was cancelled. 

GEORGE E. WARING, Jr., 

Commissioner. 

April 17, 1896. 
The Mayor and the Garbage Contracts. 

I am told that some persons thought they saw the traces of a covert 
criticism of the Mayor in my recent statement that tlie experiment relating to 
the money value of the refuse of the city " would bave been concluded last 
autumn had the plan been carried out at that time of asking proposals for the 
treatment of garbage. By request of the Mayor this plan was changed, and, 
on terms and conditions approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportioment, 
an advertisement was published asking for proposals for the disposition of all 
wastes of the city. The bids under this proposal were opened December 
10, 1895, without result." 

Before this advertisement was published, Mayor Strong asked me if my 
investigations as to garbage disposal would be interfered with by asking propo- 
sals for the diposition of all wastes. I said that it would not be, and I was 
not sorry to take this means for learning what enterprising men might have to 
propose in this direction 

Like everyone else, the Mayor gave little thought to the value of paper 
and refuse, and that side of the question was probably not considered by him 
at all. My garbage investigations proceeded without interruption. It has, of 
course, been impossible to conclude the other experiment while we were un- 
certain as to the degree to which it would be affected by contracts given out. 

It is hardly necessary for me to repeat the statement I have so often made, 
that whatever success has been achieved by the Department of Street Cleaning 
would have been impossible but for the cordial interest and co-operation of 
Mayor Strong. 

GEORGE E. WARING, Jr., 

Commissioner. 



On September 4, 1895, the following resolution was adopted by the Board 
of Estimate and Apportionment : 

" Resolved, That the Commissioner of Street Cleaning be and he is hereby 
authorized and directed to prepare a form of advertisement and contract invit- 



145 

ing proposals for the receiving at the various dumps in this City and finally 
disposing of all ashes, sweeping and other refuse material that may be collected 
and delivered at said dumps by the carts of this Cisy and by private carts 
authorized to collect such material. Each proposal to be accompanied M'ith a 
specification stating in full the manner of i)roposed final disposition of such 
material. All clean, fresh ashes may, under the inspection of Ih^s City, be 
deposited by the Contractor within the cribwork at Riker's Island ; sweepings, 
garbage and other refuse material to be disposed of in such manner only that 
will render it unobjectionable in any and every respect. Said advertisement 
and form of contract to be first approved by the Counsel to the Corporation, 
and after such approval, said advertisement to be inserted in the " City 
Record," and brief advertisement, calling attention to the same, inserted in all 
oflicial papers for thirty days, and when proposals are received and tabulated, 
that they be submitted to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for such 
action as may be determined." 

The following clauses appeared in the advertisements for the several con- 
tracts : 

" Each proposal shall be accompanied with a thorough and complete de- 
scription of the method or methods to be pursued by the bidder in the trans- 
portation and disposition of the garbage ; said description shall be accom- 
panied by complete maps, plans and specifications. Such maps, plans and 
specifications must be sufiicient fully to set forth the process to be used, the 
manner of obtaining results, the results to be secured, and, approximately, 
the locality or localities where the same is to be carried on. 

"Garbage to be disposed of in such manner only as will render it unob- 
jectionable in any and every respect, but no part thereof, except purified 
liquid etfluent, shall be dumped in the waters of New York harbor, or in 
the waters adjacent thereto, or in the Atlantic Ocean. * * * 

" The award of the contract will be made as soon as practicable after the 
opening of the bids. * * * 

" Bidders are hereby notified that in awarding ihe contract the Commis- 
sioner of Street Cleaning, will in addition to other matters which may be prop- 
erly considered, take into consideration the following : 

"The character, economy and eflSciency of the method to be used, the lo- 
cation of the plant, and generally all that concerns the interests of the City of 
New York with a view to the length of time of the continuance of the con- 
tract, such as the chances of injunction upon application of the neighboring 
population ; chances of financial failure, and the adequacy of the method 
and plan proposed to be part of the work all of the time, except when ob- 
stacles to transportation may prevent the delivery of the normal amount of 
garbage, and then its adequacy to dispose promptly of the additional quan- 
tity accumulated. * * «• 

" A special deposit of ten thousand dollars in cash will be required to be 
made with the Comptroller of the City of New York on or before the exe- 
cution of the contract as a security for the faithful performance of the same. 



146 

" All clean, fresh ashes may, under the inspection of the City, be deposited 
by the contractor within the crib-work at Riker's Island. Sweepings, garbage 
and other refuse material to be disposed of in such manner only that will 
render it unobjectionable in any and every respect, but no part thereof shall 
be dumped in the waters of New York Harbor, or in the waters adjacent 
thereto, or in the Atlantic Ocean." 

These clauses were to enable the Commissioner to properly select the bids 
most advantageous and of best interest to the City. 

The tirst advertisement was in relation to a contract for the receiving at 
the various dumps of the City of New York, for finally disposing of all ashes, 
garbage, sweepings and other refuse material that may be collected and depos- 
ited at said dumps by the carts of this city, and by private carts authorized 
to collect and deposit such material. 

The advertisement for this contract was dated October 29, 1895, anu the 
bids were opened on December 10 of the same year. Bidders were required 
to base their estimates on the following quantities : 

1. Ashes, 1,250,000 cubic yards. 

2. Street sweepings, 500,000 cubic yards. 

3. Other refuse material, including garbage, 1,000,000 cubic yards, making 
a total of 2,750,000 cubic yards ; and the price bid was to be a lump sum per 
annum, to be paid to the City by the contractor. 

The work was to commence on the first day of April, 1896. One bid was 
received from Z. F. Magill for $306,000. 

Each proposal was to be accompanied by plans and specifications stating 
in full the manner of proposed final disposition. These exhibits were for the 
Commissioner's guidance only. 

The following letter will explain itself : 

Depaktment of Street Cleaning, J 

City op New York. v 

December 13, 1895. ) 

His Hon. William L. Strong, Mayor, 

Chairman Board of Estimate and Ap-portionment. 

Sir — I respectfully submit the bid of Zephaniah F. Magill, which was the 
only one received in response to the advei'tisement for proposals for the final 
disposition of the output of this Department. 

This bid is one that I cannot accept. It is vague, inadequate, and, as 
applicable to the enormous mass of various material produced daily in New 
York, entirely too experimental. 

The specifications are not sufficient, and the probabilities indicated by 

the description that is given are not favorable to the hope for a successful 

result. 

Very I'espectf uUy, 

(Signed) GEO. E. WARING, Jr., 

Gommissioner. 



147 

The delay in the latter part of December, 189&, and eaily in January, 1896, 
was on account of the constant attention which it was necessary for the Board 
of Estimate and Apportionment to give to the passing of the final estimates for 
the year 1896, and the preparation by the Corporation Counsel of a new form 
of contract and specifications, for the final disposition of garbage, requested by 
the Board. 



"At the meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of January 
10, 1896, the Counsel to the Corporal ion presented a form of contract for the 
final disposition of street refuse collected by the Department of street Cleaning 
for the consideration of the Board. 

"The Comptroller moved that ihe resolutions approving the terms and con- 
ditionf of a contract for the final disposition of the street sweepings, ashes and 
other refuse collected and delivered at the dumping places of the Department 
of Street Cleaning, etc., adopted by the Board October 28, 1S95, be rescinded. 

"Which was adopted by the following vote: Affirmative — The Mayor, 
Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, President of the Department 
of Taxes and Assessments, and Counsel to the Corporation — 5. 

"After debate, the form of contract, as this day presented, was referred 
back to the Counsel to the Corporation for revision, and the further consider- 
ation thereof postponed until Friday January 17, 1896, at 10.30 o'clock a. m. 

" On motion, the Board adjourned to meet on Friday, January 17, 1896, at 
10.30 o'clock A. M " 

MEETTNa OP January 17, 1896. 

" The Counsel to the Corporation presented a form of contract and specifi- 
cations for the final disposition of garbage, and offered the following : 

" Resolved, That this Board hereby appproves, as to the terms and condi- 
tions, the proposed ' contract for the final disposition of all garbage that may 
be collected and deposited at the dumps of the City of New York and by the 
carts of the City of New York, and by private carts authorized to collect and 
deposit the same,' this day submitted by the Commissioner of Street Cleaning ; 
and 

" Resolved, That the Secretary of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
be and hereby is directed to indorse on the three similar copies of said contract 
the fact that the same has been approved as to the terms and conditions by 
this Board. 

"Which were adopted by the following vote: Affirmative — The Mayor, 
Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, President of the Department 
of Taxes and Assessments and Counsel to the Corporation — 5." 



The time required to make the changes and prepare forms in accordance 
with the approved forms submitted to the Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment on January 17, necessarily delayed the appearance of the advertisement 



148 

in the " City Record " until January 22, 1896. These bids were opened at 13 
o'clock M. of February 17, 1896. 

The estimates were based on a daily quantity of "about 800 tons," and 
the compensation was to be stated at a price per ton of 2,000 pounds. 

Work was to be commenced on the 1st day of June, 1896. 

Five bids were received, none of which proved acceptable. 

They Arere as follows : 

R. L. Fox, New York, bids to pay the City 50 cents per ton. 

Kelly & McGiehan, New York, $1.48 per ton, to be paid by the City. 

Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Compan}', New York, 90 cents 
per ton, to be paid by the City. 

Z. F. Magill, Troy, N. Y., $1.15 per ton, to be paid by the City. 

R. W. Peterson, Philadelphia, Pa., $1.44 per ton, to be paid by the City. 

In a letter to his Honor the Mayor of February 17, 1896, the Commis- 
sioner stated that R. L. Fox, of New York, who bid 50 cents per ton to be paid 
to the City, " no doubt meant to say that 50 cents per ton was to be paid to 
him by the City" ; and ends his letter by saying that he has not yet had time 
to examine the bids. Mr. Fox in a letter to this Department. I'eceived immedi- 
ately after the Commissioner's letter to the Mayor, indorsed the Commission- 
er's statement, saying that it was the intention of the bidders to demand 50 
cents per ton from the City, and that the error in the bid was a clerical one. 

On February 19, 1896, after due consideration of the bids, the following 
letter was sent to the Comptroller : 

Depaetment of Steeet Cleanestg, ^ 
City of New York, >■ 

February 19, 1896. ) 
Hon. AsHBEL P. Fitch, Gomptroller : 

Sir — I have declined to accept any of the bids for the final disposition of 
garbage, for reasons satisfactory to me, and in the interest of the City of New 
Y'ork. 

Under these circumstances, Mr. H. L. Fox, Messrs. Kelly & McGiehan, 
The Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Company, Z. F. Magill and R. 
"W. Peterson, are entitled to the return of the deposits which accompanied their 
respective bids. Respectfully, 

George E. Waring, Jr., 
Commissioner. 

In addition to the bids mentioned above, informal propositions were received 
from The Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Company and from 
Alexander Orr Bradley, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment re- 
ceived a third proposal, also informal, from Mr. Samuel M. Janney, represent- 
ing the Holthaus system. In consideration of these proposals, and on account 
of a discussion in the Board of Estimate and Ajjportionment, the several 
companies previously bidding were supplied with a copy of the contract as 
proposed, asking their suggestions as to any change that they ihought necessary 
to secure the rights of contractors generally, or their own rights especially. 



149 

"These suggestions will be submitted to the Counsel to the Corporation, 
who will consider them in a friendly spirit, but it is not to be understood that 
an obligation on the part of the City to adopt them, in whole or in part, is 
implied." 

In accordance with the above, all suggestions received were referred to the 
Corporation Counsel, and, after discussion in the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment, a new form of contract and specifications was prepared and 
advertised on March 12, 1896. Bids were to be opened on March 26, 1896. 
The estimate to be based upon a daily output of " 600 tons, more or less," of 
garbage only. 

A second form of proposal for the final disposition of ashes, street sweep- 
ings and garbage, was approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
on March 17, 1896, and advertised the same day. Bids were to be opened on 
March 30, 1896. Estimates to be based upon "about 2,750,000 cubic yards, 
more or less, of ashes, street sweepings and garbage, including paper and 
domestic and factory rubbish." 

As, in the opinion of the Commissioner, the opening and reading of bids 
advertised on the 12th day of March, 1896, would have placed the bidders on 
" garbage only " in the position of showing their hand to men who were to 
bid in opposition to them immediately thereafter, these bids were sealed and 
were opened at 12 o'clock noon of March 30, 1896, in conjunction with the 
bids for general refuse. 

In both of the above cases the estimate called for a lump sum per annum. 
Work was to be commenced on the first day of August, 1896. 

On the first count, i. e., garbage only, five bids were received ; and on the 
second, i. e., for all refuse, two bids. 

The following letter to bis Honor the Mayor, will explain the action of the 
Commissioner in this case : 

Department of Street Cleaning, 
City op New York, 

April 6, 1896. 

To His Honor, the Mayor, "William L. Strong. 

Sir — I beg herewith to report my action concerning the bids for the dis- 
posal of garbage ; and for the disposal of garbage, refuse and street sweepings. 
The garbage bids received March 26, 1896, were as follows : 

Kelly & McGiehan $327,823 per annum. 

Emil Holthaus 175,000 " " 

New York Sanitary Utilization Co.... 169,900 " 
The Merz Universal Extractor and Con- 
struction Co 144,000 " 

Alexander Orr Bradley 75,000 " 

The general bids were : 

Z. F. Magill $348,000 per annum. 

Kelly & McGiehan 244,000 " " 



150 

Section 709 of the Consolidation Act says : 

" From the proposals so received, he [the Commissioner of Street Cleaning] 
may select the bid or bids, the acceptance of which will, in his judgment, best 
secure the efficient performance of the work, or he may reject any or all of 
said bids." 

My first action was to investigate very carefully the proposal of Kelly & 
McGiehan. It presented many attractive features. These bidders proposed 
to pass the whole mass of wastes — ashes, street sweepings, etc.,— through a 
crematory furnace, and to use the output for filling in land under water out to 
the bulkhead-line in front of the shore of Bayonne, north of Constable Hook. 
The value of the land to be filled was to be a large item of their compensation. 

The following considerations were developed : 

1. The cremating furnace to be used, though ingenious and in many ways 
promising, has never been tried in continuous City work, it has not passed the 
theoretical stage, and it has some elements of possible failure which ought to 
be subjected to the test of long use before it can safely be adopted for work so 
important as that now contemplated. 

2. It was thought that the complete destruction of garbage, mixed with 
ashes and street sweepings of many times its bulk, could not be secured by the 
method of cremation proposed, without increasing the cost of the work for 
this item so far beyond the estimate of the bidders as to make it seem unlikely 
that they could be held to the full performance of their contract without seri- 
ous difficulty. 

3. On the second page of the " Form of Estimate and Contract for Final 
Disposition of Ashes, Street Sweepings and Garbage," it is provided as 
follows : 

"No part of said substances or material, except purified liquid effluent, 
shall be dumped or discharged in the waters of New York Harbor, or in the 
waters adjacent thereto." 

This provision is fatal to these bidders. 

The proposal of Zephaniah F. Magill was not accompanied by ' ' complete 
plans and specifications * * * sufficient to fully set forth the process to 
be used and the results to be secured," so as to make it clear that this method 
would be successful. Neither did the testimony obtained as to the work of 
this bidder at Troy seem to warrant the placing in his hands of the vitally 
important work of New York City. 

The proposal of Alexander Orr Bradley is for the utilization of garbage by 
a process which has been in use in a large way only in Pittsburg, and there 
only for a few months. Theoretically, this process has some very good points, 
as has its mechanical arrangement, but careful investigation at Pittsburg has 
made it clear that it is still in its experimental stage, and cannot be relied on 
with any approach to the certainty of immediate success that is necessary in 
contracting for the treatment of the garbage of New York. 

The proposal of Emii Holthaus, New York Sanitary Utilization Co., and The 
Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Co., contemplate the application of 



151 

processes which this Department has already studied carefully, and they call 
for no consideration at this time beyond the amounts for which they offer to 
do the •work. Their processes are good, their financial support is sound, and 
they are— perhaps equally — able to do the work. As between them, there 
could be no question as to the propriety of awarding the contract to the lowest 
bidder. It is, however, fortunate that in this case the lowest bidder has the 
advantage of having had the largest experience, and of having the most exten- 
sive works now in actual operation. 

In view" of all these considerations, I reject the two bids of Kelly & McGrie- 
han, the bid of Zephaniah F. Magill, the bid of Alexander Orr Bi'adley, the 
bid of Emil Holthaus, and the bid of the New York Sanitary Utilization Co. ; 
and I accept the bid of The Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Co. 

It is hoped that, before the time fixed for the beginning of work under this 
contract, the City will be in a position to send to Riker's Island all of its 
worthless wastes, other than garbage. It will there be valuable for the filling 
of the shoals by which this Island is bordered, to the extent of some 450 acres. 

After this there will be no occasion nor excuse for sending our wastes 
to sea. 

Respectfully submitted, 

(Signed) GEO. E. WARING, Jr., 

Commissioner oj Street Gleaning. 



The Board of Estimate and Apportionment, however, did not approve the 
Commissioners' acceptance of the Merz bid, and all bidders were notified that 
on proper application they could receive their deposits for good faith from the 
Comptroller. 

Also, in accordance with the wishes of the Board, three sets of specifica- 
tions, covering : 

1. The final disposition of ashes, street sweepings, garbage and other refuse 
and rubbish ; 

2. The final disposition of garbage ; 

3. The final disposition of ashes, street sweepings and other refuse and 
rubbish exclusive of garbage, were prepared and advertised in the " City 
Record " of April 15, 1896. Bids to be opened on the 27th of the same month 

Estimates on the first count were to be based upon 2,750.000 cubic yards of 
refuse per annum ; 

On the second count on the quantity of 500 tons of garbage daily ; 

And on the third count on 2,500,000 cubic yards of refuse per annum. 

The prices were to be in a lump sum per annum, and work was to be com 
menced on August 1, 1896. 

In all five bids were received — two on the first count and three on the 
second. No bids were received on the third count. 

For action on these bids see Commissioner's letter of May 1, 1896, to his 
Honor the Mayor : 



152 

Department of Stkeet Cleaning, ) 

City op New York, [ 

May 1, 1896. ) 

Sis Honor tJie Mayor, William L. Strong : 

Sir — I beg herewith to report my action concerning the bids for the dis- 
posal of garbage, and for the disposal of garbage, ashes, street sweepings and 
refuse, received and opened April 27, 1896. 

[No bid was received for the disposal of ashes, refuse and street sweepings,] 
The garbage bids received were : 

Merz Universal Extractor and Construction 

Company $144,000 00 

New York Sanitary Utilization Company 89,990 00 

Edward Duffy 60,000 00 

The general bids were : 

Z. F. Magill $305,000 00 

Garbage and Refuse Company 240,625 00 



A very careful study of t'lie subject shows that after the removal of garbage 
and refuse, the yearly output of ashes and street sweepings amounts to 1,928,- 
000 cubic yards. (Daily average, 5,280 yards.) 

This mateiial can be put in place at Eiker's Island for $136,888 per annum. 
It will make from fifty to sixty acres of land. 

I have the following letter from Herbert Tate : 

" As a result of the experiment in the collection of paper and other salable 
refuse carried on by me under your direction since June 18, 1895, I am pre- 
pared to pay to the City of New York $245,000 per annum for the privilege of 
picking over tQe rubbish of the city, aside from garbage, ashes and street 
sweepings, so far as it is practicable to make the separation. 

"In my judgment, Ihe unsalable residuum can be returned to profitable 
account in the production of steam. 

" The bones and fat contained in the garbage, which are now collected 
during the trimming of the scows, are sold by the contractor for about $50,000 
per year. " 

[Mr. Tate has since informed me that further investigation has satisfied 
him that the amount offered is by no means too high ; also, that the bones and 
fat are sold for over $52,000.] 

In view of the above, I reject both bids for general disposal. 

The Edward Duffy bid is, substantially, the same, as the Alexander Orr 
Bradley bid of March 26, 1896, and is rejected for the reason set forth in my 
communication on that subject of April 6, 1896. 

The next lowest bid, that of the New Y'^ork Sanitary Utilization Company, 
$89,990, after having been subjected to the closest and most careful scrutiny, 



153 

is accepted as, in my judgment, calculated to secure the efficient performance 
of the work in view. 

The Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Company's bid is rejected 
only because of its larger amount. 

To summarize the case, in view of the above and of antecedent conditions, 
I would say : 
The amount appropriated for final disposition for the year, is $375,000 00 



The expenditure under this head can be reduced materially, but not com- 
pletely, during the remainder of the year. 

After the new arrangement is in full working order, the result will be as 
follows : 

The disposal of garbage will cost $89,990 00 

The disposal of ashes and street sweepings will cost 136,888 00 

Total cost , $226,878 00 

As against this, the City will receive, if Mr. Tate's proposition is 

accepted 245,000 00 

Making a surplus of receipt over cost of $18,122 00 

It would seem reasonable to place the value of land at Riker's 
Island at $3,000 per acre, at which the land recovered would 
be worth more than $150,000 00 

Respectfully submitted, 

(Signed) GEO. E. WARING, 

Commissioner of Street Cleaning. 



At this time, and pending the action of the Board of Estimate and Appor- 
tionment on the Commissioner's recommendation, the Merz Universal 
Extractor and Construction Company instituted proceedings to mandamus the 
City in reference to the previous bid, and on the 15th of May, 1896, their 
counsel, Elihu Root and Bronson Winthrop, filed a petition in the Supreme 
Court for a mandamus to compel the Commissioner to permit them to go on 
with and execute the contract for which they had entered a bid on March 26, 
1896. The motion for granting the petition was sent from Judge Truax in 
Part I,, Special Term, to Judge Roger A. Pry or. Part IV. of the same term, 
for argument. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment meanwhile con- 
cluded to await the action of the courts in this case, as the counsel for the 
company agreed to push the work and bring it to a settlement as soon as 
possible. 

When it came up on May 18, 1896, before Judge Pryor, it was with an 
understanding between counsel on both sides that an appeal would be taken in 



154 

any event, and Judge Pryor denied the motion pi^o forma (Mr. David J. Dean, 
of the Corporation Counsel). On May 23, 1896, the motion w&s argued before 
the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and on May 25 decision was 
rendered affirming the order of the Special Term denying the motion for a 
mandamus. At this point legal proceedings on the part of the Merz Universal 
Extractor and Construction Company were dropped, and on May 27, 1896, at 
a meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the Mayor called up 
for consideration the subject for the final disposition of refuse to be collected 
by the Department of Street Cleaning. J. J. Adams, representing one of the 
bidders therefor, appeared and requested an adjournmeni in the matter until 
Tuesday, June 2, 1896. Debate was had thereon, whereupon the subject was 
laid over until Tuesday, June 2, 1896, at 10.30 o'clock, for final consideration. 

At the meeting of June 2, 1896, the Mayor stated that the subject for the 
final disposition of the material to be collected by the Department of Street 
Cleaning would now be taken up for consideration, and that all persons 
present and desiring to be heard in respect to the matter would be given an 
opportunity of being heard. 

The Comptroller asked leave to offer the following resolution at this time : 

Resolved, That the privilege of picking over the rubbish of the city, aside 
from garbage, ashes and street sweepings, be advertised for sale to the highest 
bidder, on advertisement for twenty days in the " City Record," and a short 
notice thereof in eight other daily newspapers published in the City of New 
York, on specifications calling for sealed proposals for the same, to be prepared 
by the Commissioner of Street Cleaning and submitted to and approved by the 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment. 

Which was adopted by the following vote : Affirmative — The Mayor, 
Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, President of the Depart- 
ment of Taxes and Assessments and Counsel to the Corporation — 5. 

J. J. Adams and Professor James E. Denton, representing the American 
Reduction Company ; C. L. Bartels, representing the Merz Universal Extractor 
and Construction Company ; J. B. Mayo, representing Z. F. Magill Company, 
and Joseph H. Choate, representing the New York Sanitary Utilization Com- 
pany, appeared and made statements in relation to the respective systems for 
the disposal of garbage. 

Debate was had thereon, whereupon the Mayor offered the following : 

Resolved, That the Board of Estimate and Apportionment hereby approves 
the report of the Commissioner of Street Cleaning dated May 1, 1896, stating 
Ihat he has rejected all bids for final disposition except that of the New York 
Sanitary Utilization Company, and the said Board hereby approves of the con- 
tract with the said New York Sanitary Utilization Company, recommended 
for acceptance by said Commissioner of Street Cleaning as to its terms and 
conditions, including the price or compensation therein provided for. 

The President- of the Board of Aldermen moved as a substitute that this 
Board declines to approve of the bid of the New York Sanitary Utilization 
Company as recommended by the Commissioner of Street Cleaning. 



155 

The Chairman put the question whether the Board would agree to said sub- 
stitute, and it was decided in the negative by the following vote : Aflarmative — 
The President of the Board of Aldermen — 1. Negative — The Mayor, Comp- 
troller, President of the Department of Taxes and Assessments and Counsel 
to the Corporation — 4. 

The question recurring on the original resolution as offered by the Mayor, 
it was adopted by the following vote : Affirmative— The Mayor, Comptroller, 
President of the Department of Taxes and Assessments and Counsel to the 
Corporation — 4. Negative — The President of the Board of Aldermen — 1. 

On the 6lh of June, 1896, the contract was entered into with the New York 
Sanitary Utilization Company and preparations were immediately made for 
beginning the work. 

M. C. 



INDEX. 



Appendix, 115. 

American Incinerating Company, 11, 12, 78, 91. 

American Reduction Company, 12, 13, 64, 74, 92. 

Arnold Method, 64, 78, 79, 82, 83, 86, 87. 

Ashes, crfimatory, 108 ; disposal of, 4 ; hotel, 34 ; utilization of, 132-141. 

Bids, 7 (See also Insert). 

Bottles, 70, 113 ; from the dumps, 117-121. 

Breeze, 20. 

Bridgeport Utilization Company, 12, 91, 106. 

Cartmen, 67. 

Cleanliness, importance of, 9. 

Clinker, 113. 

Collection and disposal, difficulties of, 9. 

Collections and receptacles, 5, 6, 21. 

Contract, 4. 

Conveyor, 88, 92. 

Condensers, 77, 86. 

Core, soft, 20 ; hard, 20. 

Cotton-seed foots, 46. 

Crematories, 7, 10, 19, 95-96, 98, 99 ; compared with reduction and utilization 

plants, 108 ; defects in, 109 ; examination of, 108 ; operated by few hands, 

109. 

Digesters, 25, 26, 77. 
Disinfectants, 23, 24. 
Disintegrators, 77, 85. 
Disposal, how to cheapen, 10, 
Dryers, 25, 52, 77, 84, 92. 
Dryer-room, 52. 
Dumping at sea, 3, 7. 

Effluent water, 88. 

Examination of Plants by this Department, 7, 11. 

Extractors, 26, 27, 77. 



158 INDEX. 

Pertilizers, complete, 61 ; demand for, 54; effect of new supply, 61 ; experi- 
ence necessary in the trade, 63 ; laws regulating trade, 60 ; number of 
manufacturers of, 59 ; statistics of trade in ; state of trade in, 57. 

IFuel, necessary to consume one ton of garbage, 110. 

Furnace for garbage, 95 ; cheaply built, 113 ; fuel used in, 95 ; repairs in 
109; visited, 109. 

•Garbage, amount per capita, 28 ; defined, 11 ; hotel, 15, 33-37 ; as a fertilizer, 

20 ; poor conductor of heat, 110 ; preliminary treatment, 88 ; varies, 16, 

17 ; value of, 29 ; history of the contract, 142-155. 
Grease as a garbage product, 40-50 ; bone, horse, coon, swill, 46 ; effect of, 

in fertilizers, 49 ; extraction of, 13 ; moisture in, 49 ; value of, in garbage, 

41 ; what it is, 42. 
Gases, disposition of, 22, 25, 84. 
Glue fat, 46. 

Holthaus Company, 12, 64, 91, 106. 
Household disposal, 5. 

Incineration, results of, 108. 

Junk-cart trade, 66-73. 

Mechanical appliances, 77 ; method, 91. 

Merz Universal Extractor and Construction Company, 11, 12, 30, 38, 52, 89, 

91, 99, 102, 104. 
Meat trimmings, 33. 
Metal scrap, 130. 

Methods inspected, 11-13 ; operating in towns and cities, 99, 100. 
Milling and screenings, 27, 85. 

Naphtha, use of, 48 ; method, 12, 89, 90. 

Observations, general, 97. 
Odors, 8, 23, 28. 

Paper carts, 72 ; old paper trade, 122-131. 
Pierce Process, 13, 94, 103, 107. 
Presses, 26, 77. 
Press-room, 82, 83. 
Preston Process, 11, 12, 91, 104. 

Processes, 76 ; acid, 15, 27 ; complete fertilizer, 13, 94 ; hydrocarbon, 12 
15, 24, 27 ; mechanical, 13, 15, 16 ; naphtha, 26, 89. 



INDEX. 159» 

Rags, 19. 

Reduction systems, object of, 76 ; difference between, 77 ; character of, 14. 

Refuse, 34. 

Rubbish, 18 ; disposal of, 4. 

Rubber scrap, 69. 

Sanative Refuse Company, 11, 13, 13, 89, 90, 94, 103, 107. 

Separation, 3 ; for crematories, 113. 

Smoke, from furnace stacks, 110. 

St. Louis Sanitary Company, 30, 31, 38, 39, 52. 

Stacks, height of, 110. 

Standard Construction and Utilization Company, 13, 89, 104. 

Soapmakers, 37, 47, 50. 

Soap industry, 43. 

Soap-making, fats for, 46. 

Sorting, 19. 

Stokers, automatic necessary, 118. 

Street sweepings, disposal of, 4. 

Sulphuric acid, use of, 46, 47, 48, 50, 94. 

Swill industry, 35. 

Swill water, 30. 

Tables, 102-107. 
Tailings, 33, 37. 
Tankage, 14. 

Tanks, cooking, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 ; grease extracting, 77 ; naphtha, 77, 85 ; 
slop, 64, 80. 

Utilization, 7, 98. 
Utilization plants, 11. 

Water, amount in garbage, 76, 111 ; unavailable as fuel, 5. 
Wastes, hotel, 33 ; green, 34. 




"}N>. 



